ppreciate, madame," said he, "your precaution in bringing this
gentleman with you. You judged rightly that I should be but poor
company for the evening, and you have done well, for I am going to
retire."

Then turning to me, he added in a tone of profound sarcasm:

"You will please to pardon me, and obtain also pardon from madame."

He left us. My reflections? Well, the reflections of a twelvemonth
were then comprised in those of a minute. When we were left alone,
Madame de T----- and I, we looked at each other so curiously that, in
order to break through the awkwardness, she proposed that we should
take a turn on the terrace while we waited, as she said, until the
servants had supped.

It was a superb night. It was scarcely possible to discern surrounding
objects, they seemed to be covered with a veil, that imagination might
be permitted to take a loftier flight. The gardens, terraced on the
side of a mountain, sloped down, platform after platform, to the banks
of the Seine, and the eye took in the many windings of the stream
covered with islets green and picturesque. These variations in the
landscape made up a thousand pictures which gave to the spot,
naturally charming, a thousand novel features. We walked along the
most extensive of these terraces, which was covered with a thick
umbrage of trees. She had recovered from the effects of her husband's
persiflage, and as we walked along she gave me her confidence.
Confidence begets confidence, and as I told her mine, all she said to
me became more intimate and more interesting. Madame de T----- at
first gave me her arm; but soon this arm became interlaced in mine, I
know not how, but in some way almost lifted her up and prevented her
from touching the ground. The position was agreeable, but became at
last fatiguing. We had been walking for a long time and we still had
much to say to each other. A bank of turf appeared and she sat down
without withdrawing her arm. And in this position we began to sound
the praises of mutual confidence, its charms and its delights.

"Ah!" she said to me, "who can enjoy it more than we and with less
cause of fear? I know well the tie that binds you to another, and
therefore have nothing to fear."

Perhaps she wished to be contradicted. But I answered not a word. We
were then mutually persuaded that it was possible for us to be friends
without fear of going further.

"But I was afraid, however," I said, "that that sudden jolt in the