f pity, with which I inspired the beloved
object, induced her to cure me of my passion, instead of crowning my
felicity."

"But what specific remedies did she use to effect your cure?"

"She has ceased to be kind."

"I understand she has treated you cruelly, and you call that pity, do
you? You are mistaken."

"Certainly," said Madame F----, "a woman may pity the man she loves, but
she would not think of ill-treating him to cure him of his passion. That
woman has never felt any love for you."

"I cannot, I will not believe it, madam."

"But are you cured?"

"Oh! thoroughly; for when I happen to think of her, I feel nothing but
indifference and coldness. But my recovery was long."

"Your convalescence lasted, I suppose, until you fell in love with
another."

"With another, madam? I thought I had just told you that the third time I
loved was the last."

A few days after that conversation, M. D---- R---- told me that Madame
F---- was not well, that he could not keep her company, and that I ought
to go to her, as he was sure she would be glad to see me. I obeyed, and
told Madame F---- what M. D---- R---- had said. She was lying on a sofa.
Without looking at me, she told me she was feverish, and would not ask me
to remain with her, because I would feel weary.

"I could not experience any weariness in your society, madam; at all
events, I can leave you only by your express command, and, in that case,
I must spend the next four hours in your ante-room, for M. D--- R---- has
told me to wait for him here."

"If so, you may take a seat."

Her cold and distant manner repelled me, but I loved her, and I had never
seen her so beautiful, a slight fever animating her complexion which was
then truly dazzling in its beauty. I kept where I was, dumb and as
motionless as a statue, for a quarter of an hour. Then she rang for her
maid, and asked me to leave her alone for a moment. I was called back
soon after, and she said to me,

"What has become of your cheerfulness?"

"If it has disappeared, madam, it can only be by your will. Call it back,
and you will see it return in full force."

"What must I do to obtain that result?"

"Only be towards me as you were when I returned from Casopo. I have been
disagreeable to you for the last four months, and as I do not know why, I
feel deeply grieved."

"I am always the same: in what do you find me changed?"

"Good heavens! In everything, except in beauty. But I have taken my