, who had married Madame Joffroy, one of my
thousand mistresses whom I had loved twenty-two years ago, and had seen
later at Turin, Paris, and Vienna. These meetings with old friends and
sweethearts were always a weak or rather a strong point with me. For a
moment I seemed to be young again, and I fed once more on the delights of
long ago. Repentance was no part of my composition.

Bodin and his wife (who was rather ugly than old-looking, and had become
pious to suit her husband's tastes, thus giving to God the devil's
leavings), Bodin, I say, lived on a small estate he had purchased, and
attributed all the agricultural misfortunes he met with in the course of
the year to the wrath of an avenging Deity.

I had a fasting dinner with them, for it was Friday, and they strictly
observed all the rules of the Church. I told them of my adventures of the
past years, and when I had finished they proceeded to make reflections on
the faults and failings of men who have not God for a guide. They told me
what I knew already: that I had an immortal soul, that there was a God
that judgeth righteously, and that it was high time for me to take
example by them, and to renounce all the pomps and vanities of the world.

"And turn Capuchin, I suppose?"

"You might do much worse."

"Very good; but I shall wait till my beard grows the necessary length in
a single night."

In spite of their silliness, I was not sorry to have spent six hours with
these good creatures who seemed sincerely repentant and happy in their
way, and after an affectionate embrace I took leave of them and travelled
all night. I stopped at Chanteloup to see the monument of the taste and
magnificence of the Duc de Choiseul, and spent twenty-four hours there. A
gentlemanly and polished individual, who did not know me, and for whom I
had no introduction, lodged me in a fine suite of rooms, gave me supper,
and would only sit down to table with me after I had used all my powers
of persuasion. The next day he treated me in the same way, gave me an
excellent dinner, shewed me everything, and behaved as if I were some
prince, though he did not even ask my name. His attentions even extended
to seeing that none of his servants were at hand when I got into my
carriage and drove off. This was to prevent my giving money to any of
them.

The castle on which the Duc de Choiseul had spent such immense sums had
in reality cost him nothing. It was all owing, but he did not trouble