“Alas, sir! do not say so; ought I to reproach you because you thought me so virtuous?  Well, in a few words, the monster promised to shew me every care, every attention, on condition of my giving him an undeniable, proof of my affection and confidence—­namely, to take a lodging without my brother in the house of a woman whom he represented as respectable.  He insisted upon my brother not living with me, saying that evil-minded persons might suppose him to be my lover.  I allowed myself to be persuaded.  Unhappy creature!  How could I give way without consulting you?  He told me that the respectable woman to whom he would take me would accompany me to Versailles, and that he would send my brother there so that we should be both presented to the war secretary.  After our first supper he told me that he would come and fetch me in a hackney coach the next morning.  He presented me with two louis and a gold watch, and I thought I could accept those presents from a young nobleman who shewed so much interest in me.  The woman to whom he introduced me did not seem to me as respectable as he had represented her to be.  I have passed one week with her without his doing anything to benefit my position.  He would come, go out, return as he pleased, telling me every day that it would be the morrow, and when the morrow came there was always some impediment.  At last, at seven o’clock this morning, the woman told me that the count was obliged to go into the country, that a hackney coach would bring me back to his hotel, and that he would come and see me on his return.  Then, affecting an air of sadness, she told me that I must give her back the watch because the count had forgotten to pay the watchmaker for it.  I handed it to her immediately without saying a word, and wrapping the little I possessed in my handkerchief I came back here, where I arrived half an hour since.”

“Do you hope to see him on his return from the country?”

“To see him again!  Oh, Lord! why have I ever seen him?”

She was crying bitterly, and I must confess that no young girl ever moved me so deeply as she did by the expression of her grief.  Pity replaced in my heart the tenderness I had felt for her a week before.  The infamous proceedings of Narbonne disgusted me to that extent that, if I had known where to find him alone, I would immediately have compelled him to give me reparation.  Of course, I took good care not to ask the poor girl to give me a detailed account of her stay in the house of Narbonne’s respectable procurers; I could guess even more than I wanted to know, and to insist upon that recital would have humiliated Mdlle.  Vesian.  I could see all the infamy of the count in the taking back of the watch which belonged to her as a gift, and which the unhappy girl had earned but too well.  I did all I could to dry her tears, and she begged me to be a father to her, assuring me that she would never again do anything to render her unworthy of my friendship, and that she would always be guided by my advice.