Manon had
scarcely pronounced the last words when the ci-devant hairdresser burst
into the room, accompanied by several of his political associates, who
met to consult measures for the good of the nation. Among these patriots
was the Abbe Tracassier.

"Who is that pretty girl who is with you, Manon?" whispered he; "a friend
of yours, I hope?"

Victoire left the room immediately, but not before the profligate abbe
had seen enough to make him wish to see more. The next day he went to
Madame Feuillot's under pretence of buying some embroidered
handkerchiefs; he paid Victoire a profusion of extravagant compliments,
which made no impression upon her innocent heart, and which appeared
ridiculous to her plain good sense. She did not know who he was, nor did
Madame Feuillot; for though she had often heard of the abbe, yet she had
never seen him. Several succeeding days he returned, and addressed
himself to Victoire, each time with increasing freedom. Madame Feuillot,
who had the greatest confidence in her, left her entirely to her own
discretion. Victoire begged her friend Annette to do the business of the
shop, and stayed at work in the back parlour. Tracassier was much
disappointed by her absence; but as he thought no great ceremony
necessary in his proceedings, he made his name known in a haughty manner
to Madame de Feuillot, and desired that he might be admitted into the
back parlour, as he had something of consequence to say to Mademoiselle
Victoire in private. Our readers will not require to have a detailed
account of this _tete-a-tete_; it is sufficient to say that the
disappointed and exasperated abbe left the house muttering imprecations.
The next morning a note came to Victoire apparently from Manon: it was
directed by her, but the inside was written by an unknown hand, and
continued these words:--

"You are a charming, but incomprehensible girl--since you do not like
compliments, you shall not be addressed with empty flattery. It is in
the power of the person who dictates this, not only to make you as rich
and great as your cousin Manon, but also to restore to fortune and to
their country the friends for whom, you are most interested. Their fate
as well as your own is in your power: if you send a favourable answer to
this note, the persons alluded to will, to-morrow, be struck from the
list of emigrants, and reinstated in their former possessions. If your
answer is decidedly unfavourable, the return of