ly, mind you, do not give
him any of my money. You hear?"

"You say, do you, that you would not be angry? Mais tu es un vrai
philosophe, sais-tu? Oui, un vrai philosophe! Eh bien, je t'aimerai, je
t'aimerai. Tu verras-tu seras content."

True enough, from that time onward she seemed to attach herself only to
me, and in this manner we spent our last ten days together. The
promised "etoiles" I did not see, but in other respects she, to a
certain extent, kept her word. Moreover, she introduced me to Hortense,
who was a remarkable woman in her way, and known among us as Therese
Philosophe.

But I need not enlarge further, for to do so would require a story to
itself, and entail a colouring which I am loth to impart to the present
narrative. The point is that with all my faculties I desired the
episode to come to an end as speedily as possible. Unfortunately, our
hundred thousand francs lasted us, as I have said, for very nearly a
month--which greatly surprised me. At all events, Blanche bought
herself articles to the tune of eighty thousand francs, and the rest
sufficed just to meet our expenses of living. Towards the close of the
affair, Blanche grew almost frank with me (at least, she scarcely lied
to me at all)--declaring, amongst other things, that none of the debts
which she had been obliged to incur were going to fall upon my head. "I
have purposely refrained from making you responsible for my bills or
borrowings," she said, "for the reason that I am sorry for you. Any
other woman in my place would have done so, and have let you go to
prison. See, then, how much I love you, and how good-hearted I am!
Think, too, what this accursed marriage with the General is going to
cost me!"

True enough, the marriage took place. It did so at the close of our
month together, and I am bound to suppose that it was upon the ceremony
that the last remnants of my money were spent. With it the
episode--that is to say, my sojourn with the Frenchwoman--came to an
end, and I formally retired from the scene.

It happened thus: A week after we had taken up our abode in Paris there
arrived thither the General. He came straight to see us, and
thenceforward lived with us practically as our guest, though he had a
flat of his own as well. Blanche met him with merry badinage and
laughter, and even threw her arms around him. In fact, she managed it
so that he had to follow everywhere in her train--whether when
promenading on the Boulevards, o