pleases. And, if I must confess
it, it was this brought me over to your quarters tonight; and I ate
your supper just to pass away time till you came back again. You 'll not
refuse me?"

"Certainly not. But reflect for a moment, Tascher, and you will see that
no man was ever less intended for a diplomate. It is only a few minutes
since you laughed at my solitary habits and hermit propensities."

"I've thought of all that, Burke, and am not a whit discouraged. On the
contrary, you are the more likely to think of my affairs because you
have none of your own; and I don't know any one but yourself I should
fancy to meet Pauline frequently and on terms of intimacy."

"This, at least, is not a compliment," said I, laughing.

He shrugged his shoulders, and threw up his eyebrows with a French
expression, as though to say, it can't be helped; and then continued:--

"And now remember, Burke, I count on you. Get me out of this confounded
place; I 'd rather be back at Toulon again, if need be. And as I shall
not see you again before you leave, farewell. I 'll send the letter for
the countess early to-morrow."

We shook hands warmly and parted: he to return to his quarters; and I
to sit down beside my fire, and muse over the events that had just
occurred, and think of Tascher himself, whose character had never been
so plainly exposed to me before.

If De Beauvais, with his hot-headed impetuosity, his mad devotion to the
cause of the Legitimists, was a type of the followers of the Bourbons;
so, in all the easy indifference and quiet selfishness of his nature,
was Tascher a specimen of another class of his countrymen,--a class
which, wrapped up in its own circle of egotistical enjoyments, believed
Paris the only habitable spot of the whole globe. Without any striking
traits of character, or any very decided vices, they led a life of
pleasure and amusement, rendering every one and everything around them,
so far as they were able, subservient to their own plane and wishes;
and perfectly unconscious the while how glaring their selfishness
had become, and how palpable, even to the least observant, was the
self-indulgence they practised on every occasion. Without cleverness
or tact enough to conceal their failings, they believed they imposed
on others because they imposed on themselves,--just as the child deems
himself unseen when he closes his eyes.

Josephine's followers were, many of them, like this, and formed a
striking contr