which I am pleased
to have procured for you."

We did not part without tears. She was the first to go, after kissing me
and calling me her best friend. I stayed a short time with Madame Varnier
to compose my feelings, and I told her that I should have married her
instead of drawing her horoscope.

"She would no doubt have been happier. You did not foresee, perhaps, her
timidity and her lack of ambition."

"I can assure you that I did not reckon upon her courage or ambition. I
laid aside my own happiness to think only of hers. But what is done
cannot be recalled, and I shall be consoled if I see her perfectly happy
at last. I hope, indeed, she will be so, above all if she is delivered of
a son."

I dined with Madame d'Urfe, and we decided to send back Aranda to his
boarding-school that we might be more free to pursue our cabalistic
operations; and afterwards I went to the opera, where my brother had made
an appointment with me. He took me to sup at Madame Vanloo's, and she
received me in the friendliest manner possible.

"You will have the pleasure of meeting Madame Blondel and her husband,"
said she.

The reader will recollect that Madame Blondel was Manon Baletti, whom I
was to have married.

"Does she know I am coming?" I enquired.

"No, I promise myself the pleasure of seeing her surprise."

"I am much obliged to you for not wishing to enjoy my surprise as well.
We shall see each other again, but not to-day, so I must bid you
farewell; for as I am a man of honour I hope never to be under the same
roof as Madame Blondel again."

With this I left the room, leaving everybody in astonishment, and not
knowing where to go I took a coach and went to sup with my sister-in-law,
who was extremely glad to see me. But all through supper-time this
charming woman did nothing but complain of her husband, saying that he
had no business to marry her, knowing that he could not shew himself a
man.

"Why did you not make the trial before you married?"

"Was it for me to propose such a thing? How should I suppose that such a
fine man was impotent? But I will tell you how it all happened. As you
know, I was a dancer at the Comedie Italienne, and I was the mistress of
M. de Sauci, the ecclesiastical commissioner. He brought your brother to
my house, I liked him, and before long I saw that he loved me. My lover
advised me that it was an opportunity for getting married and making my
fortune. With this idea I conceived the pl