features, despite the brilliance of her eyes,
expressed candour and modesty. Her dress allowed me to follow all the
lines of her figure, and the eyes dwelt pleasantly on the beauty of her
form, and on the two spheres which seemed to lament their too close
confinement. Although M. le Noir said nothing of all this, it was easy to
see that in his own way he admired her perfections no less than I. He
left us at eight o'clock, and half an hour afterwards the fat aunt went
away followed by her charming niece and the pale man who had come with
them. I lost no time in taking leave with Tiretta, who promised the
Pope's niece to join her on the morrow, which he did.

Three or four days later I received at my office a letter from Mdlle. de
la Meure--the pretty niece. It ran as follows: "Madame, my aunt, my late
mother's sister, is a devotee, fond of gaming, rich, stingy, and unjust.
She does not like me, and not having succeeded in persuading me to take
the veil, she wants to marry me to a wealthy Dunkirk merchant, whom I do
not know, but (mark this) whom she does not know any more than I do. The
matrimonial agent has praised him very much, and very naturally, as a man
must praise his own goods. This gentleman is satisfied with an income of
twelve hundred francs per annum, but he promises to leave me in his will
no less than a hundred and fifty thousand francs. You must know that by
my mother's will my aunt is obliged to pay me on my wedding day
twenty-five thousand crowns.

"If what has taken place between us has not made me contemptible in your
sight, I offer you my hand and heart with sixty-five thousand francs, and
as much more on my aunt's death.

"Don't send me any answer, as I don't know how or by whom to receive your
letter. You can answer me in your own person next Sunday at Madame
Lambertini's. You will thus have four days whereon to consider this most
important question. I do not exactly know whether I love you, but I am
quite sure that I prefer you to any other man. I know that each of us has
still to gain the other's esteem, but I am sure you would make my life a
happy one, and that I should be a faithful wife. If you think that the
happiness I seek can add to your own, I must warn you that you will need
the aid of a lawyer, as my aunt is miserly, and will stick at trifles.

"If you decide in the affirmative you must find a convent for me to take
refuge in before I commit myself to anything, as otherwise I should b