ith a respectful
reserve, implying, that his love would not suffer him to make her a
partner in his sorrow; and this delicacy on his part whetted her
impatience and concern to such a degree, that, rather than keep her in
such an agony of doubt and apprehension, he was prevailed upon to tell
her, that he had been, the preceding night, engaged with a company of his
fellow-students, where he had made too free with the champagne, so that
his caution forsook him, and he had been decoyed into play by a Tyrolese
gamester, who stripped him of all his ready money, and obtained from him
an obligation for two hundred florins, which he could not possibly pay
without having recourse to his relation the Count de Melvil, who would
have just cause to be incensed at his extravagance.

This information he concluded, by declaring that, cost what it would, he
was resolved to make a candid confession of the truth, and throw himself
entirely upon the generosity of his patron, who could inflict no other
punishment than that of discarding him from his favour and protection,--a
misfortune which, how grievous soever it might be, he should be able to
sustain with fortitude, could he fall upon some method of satisfying the
Tyrolese, who was very importunate and savage in his demand. His kind
mistress no sooner found out the source of his inquietude, than she
promised to dry it up, assuring him that next day, at the same hour, she
would enable him to discharge the debt; so that he might set his heart at
ease, and recollect that gaiety which was the soul of her enjoyment.

He expressed the utmost astonishment at this generous proffer, which,
however, he declined, with an affected earnestness of refusal,
protesting, that he should be extremely mortified, if he thought she
looked upon him as one of those mercenary gallants who could make such a
sordid use of a lady's affection. "No, madam," cried our politician in a
pathetic strain, "whatever happens, I shall never part with that internal
consolation, that conscious honour never fails to yield in the deepest
scenes of solitary distress. The attachment I have the honour to profess
for your amiable person, is not founded on such inglorious motives, but
is the genuine result of that generous passion which none but the
noble-minded feel, and the only circumstance of this misfortune that I
dread to encounter, is the necessity of withdrawing myself for ever from
the presence of her whose genial smiles co