zed in this second wife of his, Mdlle. Belanger. I addressed the
usual compliments to her and enquired after her mother. She replied with
a profound sigh, and told me not to ask any questions about her family as
she had only bad news to tell me.

I had known Madame Belanger at Paris; she was a widow with one daughter,
and seemed to be well off. Now I saw this daughter, pretty enough and
well married, and yet in this doleful humour, and I felt embarrassed and
yet curious.

After Calsabigi had placed me in a position to entertain a high opinion
of the skill of his cook, he shewed me his horses and carriages, begging
me to take a drive with his wife and come back to supper, which, as he
said, was his best meal.

When we were in the carriage together, the necessity of talking about
something led me to ask the lady by what happy chain of circumstances she
found herself the wife of Calsabigi.

"His real wife is still alive, so I have not the misfortune of occupying
that position, but everyone in Berlin thinks I am his lawful wife. Three
years ago I was deprived of my mother and the means of livelihood at one
stroke, for my mother had an annuity. None of my relations were rich
enough to help me, and wishing to live virtuously above all things I
subsisted for two years on the sale of my mother's furniture, boarding
with a worthy woman who made her living by embroidery. I learnt her art,
and only went out to mass on Sundays. I was a prey to melancholy, and
when I had spent all I had I went to M. Brea, a Genoese, on whom I
thought I could rely. I begged him to get me a place as a mere
waiting-maid, thinking that I was tolerably competent for such a
position. He promised to do what he could for me, and five or six days
afterwards he made me the following proposal:

"He read me a letter from Calsabigi, of whom I had never heard, in which
he charged him to send a virtuous young lady to Berlin. She must be of
good birth, good education, and pleasant appearance, as when his aged and
infirm wife died he intended to marry her.

"As such a person would most probably be badly off, Calsabigi begged M.
Brea to give her fifty Louis to buy clothes and linen and fifty Louis to
journey to Berlin with a maid. M. Brea was also authorized to promise
that the young lady should hold the position of Calsabigi's wife, and be
presented in that character to all his friends; that she should have a
waiting-maid, a carriage, an allowance of clothes,