o but to see that there was nobody following him in the alley before he
went in at the door. This request, I knew, was reasonable, and therefore
I assured him I would not change my dwelling, seeing his Highness did
not think it too mean for me to receive him in.

He also desired me that I would not take any more servants or set up any
equipage, at least for the present; for that it would then be
immediately concluded I had been left very rich, and then I should be
thronged with the impertinence of admirers, who would be attracted by
the money, as well as by the beauty of a young widow, and he should be
frequently interrupted in his visits; or that the world would conclude I
was maintained by somebody, and would be indefatigable to find out the
person; so that he should have spies peeping at him every time he went
out or in, which it would be impossible to disappoint; and that he
should presently have it talked over all the toilets in Paris that the
Prince de ---- had got the jeweller's widow for a mistress.

This was too just to oppose, and I made no scruple to tell his Highness
that, since he had stooped so low as to make me his own, he ought to
have all the satisfaction in the world that I was all his own; that I
would take all the measures he should please to direct me to avoid the
impertinent attacks of others; and that, if he thought fit, I would be
wholly within doors, and have it given out that I was obliged to go to
England to solicit my affairs there, after my husband's misfortune, and
that I was not expected there again for at least a year or two. This he
liked very well; only he said that he would by no means have me
confined; that it would injure my health, and that I should then take a
country-house in some village, a good way off of the city, where it
should not be known who I was, and that he should be there sometimes to
divert me.

I made no scruple of the confinement, and told his Highness no place
could be a confinement where I had such a visitor, and so I put off the
country-house, which would have been to remove myself farther from him
and have less of his company; so I made the house be, as it were, shut
up. Amy, indeed, appeared, and when any of the neighbours and servants
inquired, she answered, in broken French, that I was gone to England to
look after my affairs, which presently went current through the streets
about us. For you are to note that the people of Paris, especially the
women, are t