e matter."

"Oh! I quite agree that there is no one like you for putting a woman to
sleep."

"Yes, and a husband too, and if necessary a lover, my dear friend."

At last Monsieur de T----- was admitted to his wife's apartment, and
there we were all summoned.

"I trembled," said Madame de T----- to me, "for fear you would go before
I awoke, and I thank you for saving me the annoyance which that would
have caused me."

"Madame," I said, and she must have perceived the feeling that was in my
tones--"I come to say good-bye."

She looked at me and at the marquis with an air of disquietude; but the
self-satisfied, knowing look of her lover reassured her. She laughed
in her sleeve with me as if she would console me as well as she could,
without lowering herself in my eyes.

"He has played his part well," the marquis said to her in a low voice,
pointing to me, "and my gratitude--"

"Let us drop the subject," interrupted Madame de T-----; "you may be
sure that I am well aware of all I owe him."

At last Monsieur de T-----, with a sarcastic remark, dismissed me; my
friend threw the dust in his eyes by making fun of me; and I paid back
both of them by expressing my admiration for Madame de T-----, who made
fools of us all without forfeiting her dignity. I took myself off; but
Madame de T----- followed me, pretending to have a commission to give
me.

"Adieu, monsieur!" she said, "I am indebted to you for the very great
pleasure you have given me; but I have paid you back with a beautiful
dream," and she looked at me with an expression of subtle meaning. "But
adieu, and forever! You have plucked a solitary flower, blossoming in
its loveliness, which no man--"

She stopped and her thought evaporated in a sigh; but she checked the
rising flood of sensibility and smiled significantly.

"The countess loves you," she said. "If I have robbed her of some
transports, I give you back to her less ignorant than before. Adieu! Do
not make mischief between my friend and me."

She wrung my hand and left me.

More than once the ladies who had mislaid their fans blushed as they
listened to the old gentleman, whose brilliant elocution won their
indulgence for certain details which we have suppressed, as too erotic
for the present age; nevertheless, we may believe that each lady
complimented him in private; for some time afterwards he gave to each
of them, as also to the masculine guests, a copy of this charming story,
twenty-f