agnie d'elite_ to Paris, then and there--"

As I read thus far aloud, Tascher interrupted me, snatching the paper
from my hands, and continued thus:--

"Then and there to mope, muse, and be _ennuye_ until such time as active
service may again recall him to the army. My dear Burke, I am really
sorry for you. Wars and campaigning may be--indeed they are--very fine
things; but as the means, not the end. His Majesty, my uncle,--whom may
Heaven preserve and soften his heart to his relations!--loves them for
their own sake; but we,--you and I, for instance,--what possible reason
can we have for risking our bones, and getting our flesh mangled, save
the hope of promotion? And to what end that same promotion, if not for
a wider sphere of pleasure and enjoyment? Think what a career a colonel,
at our age, would have in Paris!"

"Come, Tascher, I will not believe you in all this. If there were
not something higher to reward one for the fatigues and dangers of a
campaign than the mere sensual delights you allude to, I, for one, would
soon doff the epaulettes."

"You are impracticable," said he, half angrily; "but it is as much from
the isolation in which you have lived as any conviction on the subject.
You must let me introduce you to some relatives of mine in Paris. They
will be delighted to know you; for, as one of the _compagnie d'elite_,
you might figure as a very respectable 'lion' for two, nay, three entire
evenings. And you will have the _entree_ to the pleasantest house in
Paris; they receive every evening, and all the best people resort there.
I only exact one condition."

"And that is--"

"You must not make love to Pauline. That you will fall in love with her
yourself is a fact I can't help,--nor you either. But no advance on your
part; promise me that."

"In such case, Tascher, it were best for all parties I should not know
the lady. I have no fancy, believe me, for being smitten whether I will
or no."

"I see, Master Burke, there is a bit of impertinence in all this. You
sneer at my warnings about _la belle cousine_; now, I am determined
you shall see her at least. Besides, you must do me a service with the
countess I have had the bad luck to be for some time out of favor with
my aunt Josephine,--some trumpery debts of mine they make a work
about at the Tuileries. Well, perhaps you could persuade Madame de
Lacostellerie to take up my cause; she has great influence with the
Empress, and can make her do what she