r timid recluses, they were shrieking with laughter, and reeling
from side to side.

I was their screen as we sat in front of the fire, and I gazed freely on
charms which they could no longer conceal. I told them that we must not
think of going till the punch was finished, and they agreed, saying, in
high glee, that it would be a great sin to leave so good a thing behind.

I then presumed so far as to tell them that they had beautiful legs, and
that I should be puzzled to assign the prize between them. This made them
gayer than ever, for they had not noticed that their unlaced bodices and
short petticoats let me see almost everything.

After drinking our punch to the dregs, we remained talking for half an
hour, while I congratulated myself on my self-restraint. Just as we were
going I asked them if they had any grounds of complaint against me.
Armelline replied that if I would adopt her as my daughter she was ready
to follow me to the end of the world. "Then you are not afraid of my
turning you from the path of duty?"

"No, I feel quite safe with you."

"And what do you say, dear Emilie?"

"I shall love you too, when you do for me what the superioress will tell
you to-morrow."

"I will do anything, but I shan't come to speak to her till the evening,
for it is three o'clock now."

They laughed all the louder, exclaiming,--

"What will the mother say?"

I paid the bill, gave something to the waiter, and took them back to the
convent, where the porteress seemed well enough pleased with the new
rules when she saw two sequins in her palm.

It was too late to see the superioress, so I drove home after rewarding
the coachman and the lackey.

Margarita was ready to scratch my eyes out if I could not prove my
fidelity, but I satisfied her by quenching on her the fires Armelline and
the punch had kindled. I told her I had been kept by a gaming party, and
she asked no more questions.

The next day I amused the princess and the cardinal by a circumstantial
account of what had happened.

"You missed your opportunity," said the princess.

"I don't think so," said the cardinal, "I believe, on the contrary, that
he has made his victory more sure for another time."

In the evening, I went to the convent where the superioress gave me her
warmest welcome. She complimented me on having amused myself with the two
girls till three o'clock in the morning without doing anything wrong.
They had told her how we had eaten the