“That’s because I am an old man, my dear fellow, and have shaken off the rust and dust of prejudices, and am able to see things as they really are, and appreciate them at their true value.  But let us return to your love-affair.  If you wish to keep it in the dark, you must avoid with the greatest care any action which may awaken suspicion in the minds of people who do not believe that anything is indifferent.  The most malicious and censorious will not be able to get anything but the merest chance out of the interview I procured you today, and the accident of the sneezing bout, defy the most ill-natured to draw any deductions; for an eager lover does not begin his suit by sending the beloved one into convulsions.  Nobody can guess that your hellebore was used to conceal the blush that your caresses occasioned, since it does not often happen that an amorous combat leaves such traces; and how can you be expected to have foreseen the lady’s blushes, and to have provided yourself with a specific against them?  In short, the events of to-day will not disclose your secret.  M.——­ who, although he wishes to pass for a man devoid of jealousy, is a little jealous; M.——­ himself cannot have seen anything out of the common in my asking him to return with me, as I had business of importance with him, and he has certainly no reasons for supposing that I should be likely to help you to intrigue with his wife.  Furthermore, the laws of politeness would have forbidden me, under any circumstances, offering the lady the place I offered him, and as he prides himself on his politeness he can raise no possible objection to the arrangement which was made.  To be sure I am old and you are young—­a distinction not unimportant in a husband’s eyes.”  After this exordium, added the good-natured ambassador, with a laugh, “an exordium which I have delivered in the official style of a secretary of state, let us see where we are.  Two things are necessary for you to obtain your wished-for bliss.  The first thing, which concerns you more particularly, is to make M.——­ your friend, and to conceal from him that you have conceived a passion for his wife, and here I will aid you to the best of my ability.  The second point concerns the lady’s honour; all your relations with her must appear open and above-board.  Consider yourself under my protection; you must not even take a country house before we have found out some plan for throwing dust into the eyes of the observant.  However, you need not be anxious; I have hit upon a plan.

“You must pretend to be taken ill, but your illness must be of such a kind that your doctor will be obliged to take your word for the symptoms.  Luckily, I know a doctor whose sole idea is to order country air for all complaints.  This physician, who is about as clever as his brethren, and kills or cures as well as any of them, will come and feel my pulse one of these days.  You must take his advice, and for a couple of louis he will write you a prescription with country air as the chief item.  He will then inform everybody that your case is serious, but that he will answer for your cure.”