“I advise you—­nay, I bid you do so by all means, and I should think you had better be gone to-day than to-morrow.”

“I don’t want to do anything suddenly, as M. le Noir is a gentleman and my friend, and he thinks me a cousin to this wretched woman.  As he knows nothing of the infamous trade she carries on, he would suspect something, and perhaps would leave her after learning the reason of my departure.  I shall find some excuse or other in the course of the next five or six days, and then I will make haste and return to you.”

The Lambertini thanked me for coming to dinner in a friendly manner, and told me that we should have the company of Mdlle. de la Meure and her aunt.  I asked her if she was still satisfied with my friend “Sixtimes,” and she told me that though the count did not always reside on his manor, she was for all that delighted with him; and said she,

“I am too good a monarch to ask too much of my vassals.”

I congratulated her, and we continued to jest till the arrival of the two other guests.

As soon as Mdlle. de la Meure saw me she could scarcely conceal her pleasure.  She was in half mourning, and looked so pretty in this costume, which threw up the whiteness of her skin, that I still wonder why that instant did not determine my fate.

Tiretta, who had been making his toilette, rejoined us, and as nothing prevented me from shewing the liking I had taken for the amiable girl I paid her all possible attention.  I told the aunt that I found her niece so pretty that I would renounce my bachelorhood if I could find such a mate.

“My niece is a virtuous and sweet-tempered ’girl, sir, but she is utterly devoid either of intelligence or piety.”

“Never mind the intelligence,” said the niece, “but I was never found wanting in piety at the convent.”

“I dare say the nuns are of the jesuitical party.”

“What has that got to do with it, aunt?”

“Very much, child; the Jesuits and their adherents are well known to have no vital religion.  But let us talk of something else.  All that I want you to do is to know how to please your future husband.”

“Is mademoiselle about to marry, then?”

“Her intended will probably arrive at the beginning of next month.”

“Is he a lawyer?”

“No, sir; he is a well-to-do merchant.”

“M. le Noir told me that your niece was the daughter of a councillor, and I did not imagine that you would sanction her marrying beneath her.”

“There will be no question of such a thing in this instance, sir; and, after all, what is marrying beneath one?  My niece’s intended is an honest, and therefore a noble, man, and I am sure it will be her fault if she does not lead a life of perfect happiness with him”

“Quite so, supposing she loves him.”

“Oh! love and all that kind of thing will come in good time, you know.”