red. Otherwise I have no repentance--I am joueur--nature has made me
so, as she made my brother devot. The Archbishop of Strasbourg is of our
parents; I saw his grandeur when I went lately to Strasbourg, on my last
pilgrimage to the Mont de Piete. I owned to him that I would pawn
his cross and ring to go play: the good prelate laughed, and said his
chaplain should keep an eye on them. Will you dine with me? The landlord
of my hotel was the intendant of our cousin, the Duc d'Ivry, and
will give me credit to the day of judgment. I do not abuse his noble
confidence. My dear! there are covers of silver put upon my table
every day with which I could retrieve my fortune, did I listen to the
suggestions of Satanas; but I say to him, Vade retro. Come and dine with
me--Duluc's kitchen is very good."

These easy confessions were uttered by a gentleman who was nearly forty
years of age, and who had indeed played the part of a young man in Paris
and the great European world so long, that he knew or chose to perform
no other. He did not want for abilities; had the best temper in the
world; was well bred and gentlemanlike always; and was gay even after
Moscow. His courage was known, and his character for bravery and another
kind of gallantry probably exaggerated by his bad reputation. Had his
mother not been alive, perhaps he would have believed in the virtue
of no woman. But this one he worshipped, and spoke with tenderness and
enthusiasm of her constant love and patience and goodness. "See her
miniature!" he said, "I never separate myself from it--oh, never! It
saved my life in an affair about--about a woman who was not worth the
powder which poor Jules and I burned for her. His ball struck me here,
upon the waistcoat, bruising my rib and sending me to my bed, which I
never should have left alive but for this picture. Oh, she is an angel,
my mother! I am sure that Heaven has nothing to deny that saint, and
that her tears wash out my sins."

Olive smiled. "I think Madame de Florac must weep a good deal," he said.

"Enormement, my friend! My faith! I do not deny it! I give her cause,
night and evening. I am possessed by demons! This little Affenthaler
wine of this country has a little smack which is most agreeable. The
passions tear me, my young friend! Play is fatal, but play is not so
fatal as woman. Pass me the ecrevisses, they are most succulent. Take
warning by me, and avoid both. I saw you roder round the green tables,
and m