arrassment, without
preparation, I could have told you everything; but now I am obliged to
think over what I have to say, to gather myself together, and pass into
the solemnity of a written statement.

But after all, perhaps it is better to plunge boldly in, and since, in
spite of circumlocutions and preambles, I shall have sooner or later
to come to the point, why not say at once that my trouble concerns the
stranger who saved my daughter's life.

Stranger! yes, a stranger to Monsieur de l'Estorade and to all who have
told you about the accident, but not a stranger to me, whom, for the
last three months, this man has condescended to honor with the most
obstinate attention. That the mother of three children, one of them
a big boy of fifteen, should at thirty-three years of age become the
object of an ardent passion will seem to you, as it does to me, an
impossible fact; and that is the ridiculous misfortune about which I
want to consult you.

When I say that this stranger is known to me, I must correct myself; for
I know neither his name, nor his abode, nor anything about him. I have
never met him in society, and I may add that, although he wears
the ribbon of the Legion of honor, there is nothing in his air and
manner--which are totally devoid of elegance--to make me suppose I ever
shall meet him in our world.

It was at Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, where, as you know, I go to hear mass,
that this annoying obsession began. I used almost daily to take my
children to walk in the Tuileries, as the house we have hired here
has no garden. This habit being noticed by my persecutor, I found him
repeatedly there and wherever else I might be met outside of my own
home. Perfectly discreet, although so audacious, this singular follower
never accompanied me to my own door; he kept at a sufficient distance to
give me the comfort of feeling that his foolish assiduity would not be
observed by others.

Heaven only knows the sacrifices and annoyances I have borne to be rid
of him. I never go to church now except on Sundays; I often keep my dear
children at home to the injury of their health; or else I make excuses
not to accompany them, and against all the principles of my education
and prudence, I leave them to the care of the servants. Visits, shopping
I do only in a carriage, which did not prevent my _shadow_ from being
at hand when the accident happened to Nais, and saving her life, an act
that was brave and providential.

But it