Madame F——­ gave me a glass of water in which she put some Eau des carmes which instantly acted as a violent emetic.  Two or three minutes after I felt better, and asked for something to eat.  Madame F——­ smiled.  The servant came in with the broth and the eggs, and while I was eating I told the history of Pandolfin.  M. D——­ R——­ thought it was all a miracle, and I could read, on the countenance of the charming woman, love, affection, and repentance.  If M. D——­ R——­ had not been present, it would have been the moment of my happiness, but I felt certain that I should not have long to wait.  M. D——­ R——­ told Madame F——­ that, if he had not seen me so sick, he would have believed my illness to be all sham, for he did not think it possible for anyone to rally so rapidly.

“It is all owing to my Eau des carmes,” said Madame F-----, looking at
me, “and I will leave you my bottle.”

“No, madam, be kind enough to take it with you, for the water would have no virtue without your presence.”

“I am sure of that,” said M. D---- R-----, “so I will leave you here with
your patient.”

“No, no, he must go to sleep now.”

I slept all night, but in my happy dreams I was with her, and the reality itself would hardly have procured me greater enjoyment than I had during my happy slumbers.  I saw I had taken a very long stride forward, for twenty-four hours of abstinence gave me the right to speak to her openly of my love, and the gift of her hair was an irrefutable confession of her own feelings.

On the following day, after presenting myself before M. F——­, I went to have a little chat with the maid, to wait until her mistress was visible, which was not long, and I had the pleasure of hearing her laugh when the maid told her I was there.  As soon as I went in, without giving me time to say a single word, she told me how delighted she was to see me looking so well, and advised me to call upon M. D---- R-----.

It is not only in the eyes of a lover, but also in those of every man of taste, that a woman is a thousand times more lovely at the moment she comes out of the arms of Morpheus than when she has completed her toilet.  Around Madame F——­ more brilliant beams were blazing than around the sun when he leaves the embrace of Aurora.  Yet the most beautiful woman thinks as much of her toilet as the one who cannot do without it—­very likely because more human creatures possess the more they want.

In the order given to me by Madame F---- to call on M. D---- R-----, I saw
another reason to be certain of approaching happiness, for I thought
that, by dismissing me so quickly, she had only tried to postpone the
consummation which I might have pressed upon her, and which she could not
have refused.

Rich in the possession of her hair, I held a consultation with my love to decide what I ought to do with it, for Madame F——­, very likely in her wish to atone for the miserly sentiment which had refused