“You do me too much honour.”

“You are staying at the ’St. Omer’!”

“Yes; I am only stopping here to see Vaucluse, where I think of going to-morrow if I can get a good guide.”

“If you would do me the honour of accepting me, I should be delighted.  My name is Dolci, I am son of the captain of the vice-legate’s guard.”

“I feel the honour you do me, and I accept your obliging offer.  I will put off my start till your arrival.”

“I will be with you at seven.”

I was astonished at the easy grace of this young Adonis, who might have been a pretty girl if the tone of his voice had not announced his manhood.  I laughed at the false Astrodi, whose acting was as poor as her face, and who kept staring at me all the time.  While she sang she regarded me with a smile and gave me signs of an understanding, which must have made the audience notice me, and doubtless pity my bad taste.  The voice and eyes of one actress pleased me; she was young and tall, but hunchbacked to an extraordinary degree.  She was tall in spite of her enormous humps, and if it had not been for this malformation she would have been six feet high.  Besides her pleasing eyes and very tolerable voice I fancied that, like all hunchbacks, she was intelligent.  I found her at the door with the ugly Astrodi when I was leaving the theatre.  The latter was waiting to thank me, and the other was selling tickets for her benefit.

After the Astrodi had thanked me, the hunchbacked girl turned towards me, and with a smile that stretched from ear to ear and displayed at least twenty-four exquisite teeth, she said that she hoped I would honour her by being present at her benefit.

“If I don’t leave before it comes off, I will,” I replied.

At this the impudent Astrodi laughed, and in the hearing of several ladies waiting for their carriages told me that her friend might be sure of my presence, as she would not let me go before the benefit night.  “Give him sixteen tickets,” she added.  I was ashamed to refuse, and gave her two louis.  Then in a lower voice the Astrodi said, “After the show we will come and sup with you, but on the condition that you ask nobody else, as we want to be alone.”

In spite of a feeling of anger, I thought that such a supper-party would be amusing, and as no one in the town knew me I resolved to stay in the hope of enjoying a hearty laugh.

I was having my supper when Stuard and his wife went to their room.  This night I heard no sobs nor reproaches, but early next morning I was surprised to see the chevalier who said, as if we had been old friends, that he had heard that I was going to Vaucluse, and that as I had taken a carriage with four places he would be much obliged if I would allow him and his wife, who wanted to see the fountain, to go with me.  I consented.

Le Duc begged to be allowed to accompany me on horseback, saying that he had been a true prophet.  In fact it seemed as if the couple had agreed to repay me for my expenditure by giving me new hopes.  I was not displeased with the expedition, and it was all to my advantage, as I had had recourse to no stratagems to obtain it.