Early next morning I wrote to her father that his daughter had resolved not to leave her lover, who was only slightly wounded, that they were in perfect safety and under the protection of the law at Chamberi, and finally that having heard their story, and judging them to be well matched, I could only approve of the course they had taken.  When I had finished I went into their room and gave them the letter to read, and seeing the fair runaway at a loss how to express her ’gratitude, I begged the invalid to let me kiss her.

“Begin with me,” said he, opening his arms.

My hypocritical love masked itself under the guise of paternal affection.  I embraced the lover, and then more amorously I performed the same office for the mistress, and skewed them my purse full of gold, telling them it was at their service.  While this was going on the surgeon came in, and I retired to my room.

At eleven o’clock Madame Morin and her daughter arrived, preceded by Le Duc on horseback, who announced their approach by numerous smacks of his whip.  I welcomed her with open arms, thanking her for obliging me.

The first piece of news she gave me was that Mdlle.  Roman had become mistress to Louis XV., that she lived in a beautiful house at Passi, and that she was five months gone with child.  Thus she was in a fair way to become queen of France, as my divine oracle had predicted.

“At Grenoble,” she added, “you are the sole topic of conversation; and I advise you not to go there unless you wish to settle in the country, for they would never let you go.  You would have all the nobility at your feet, and above all, the ladies anxious to know the lot of their daughters.  Everybody believes in judicial astrology now, and Valenglard triumphs.  He has bet a hundred Louis to fifty that my niece will be delivered of a young prince, and he is certain of winning; though to be sure, if he loses, everybody will laugh at him.”

“Don’t be afraid of his losing.”

“Is it quite certain?”

“Has not the horoscope proved truthful in the principal particular?  If the other circumstances do not follow, I must have made a great mistake in my calculations.”

“I am delighted to hear you say so.”

“I am going to Paris and I hope you will give me a letter of introduction to Madame Varnier, so that I may have the pleasure of seeing your niece.”

“You shall have the letter to-morrow without fail.”

I introduced Mdlle.  Desarmoises to her under the family name of her lover, and invited her to dine with Madame Morin and myself.  After dinner we went to the convent, and M——­ M——­ came down very surprised at this unexpected visit from her aunt; but when she saw me she had need of all her presence of mind.  When her aunt introduced me to her by name, she observed with true feminine tact that during her stay at Aix she had seen me five or six times at the fountain, but that I could not remember her features as she had always worn her veil.  I admired her wit as much as her exquisite features.  I thought she had grown prettier than ever, and no doubt my looks told her as much.  We spent an hour in talking about Grenoble and her old friends, whom she gladly recalled to her memory, and then she went to fetch a young girl who was boarding at the convent, whom she liked and wanted to present to her aunt.