One morning in the midst of an unimportant and disconnected conversation, she complimented me upon my strength of mind in subduing my passion, adding, with a smile, that my desire could not have pricked me very sharply, seeing that I had cured myself so well in the course of a week.  I quietly replied that I owed my cure not to the weakness of my passion but to my self-respect.

“I know my own character,” I said, “and without undue presumption, I think I may say that I am worthy of a woman’s love.  Naturally, after your convincing me that you think differently, I feel humiliated and indignant.  Do you know what effect such feelings have on the heart?”

“Alas!” said she, “I know too well.  Their effect is to inspire one with contempt for her who gave rise to them.”

“That is going too far, at least in my case.  My indignation was merely succeeded by a renewed confidence in myself, and a determination to be revenged.”

“To be revenged!  In what way?”

“I wish to compel you to esteem me, by proving to you that I am lord of myself, and can pass by with indifference what I once so ardently desired.  I do not know whether I have succeeded yet, but I may say that I can now contemplate your charms without desiring to possess them.”

“You are making a mistake, for I never ceased to esteem you, and I esteemed you as much a week ago as I do to-day.  Nor for a moment I did think you capable of leaving me to my fate as a punishment for having refused to give way to your transports, and I am glad that I read your character rightly.”

We went on to speak of the opiate I made her take, and as she saw no change in her condition she wanted me to increase the dose—­a request I took care not to grant, as I knew that more than half a drachm might kill her.  I also forbade her to bleed herself again, as she might do herself a serious injury without gaining anything by it.  Her maid, of whom she had been obliged to make a confidante, had had her bled by a student, her lover.  I told Mdlle.  X. C. V. that if she wanted these people to keep her counsel she must be liberal with them, and she replied that she had no money.  I offered her money and she accepted fifty louis, assuring me that she would repay me that sum which she needed for her brother Richard.  I had not as much money about me, but I sent her the same day a packet of twelve hundred francs with a note in which I begged her to have recourse to me in all her necessities.  Her brother got the money, and thought himself authorized to apply to me for aid in a much more important matter.