An observing critic who, without being acquainted with us, wished to guess whether love was present at our happy party, might have suspected, perhaps, but he certainly could not have affirmed, that it was there.  M——­ M——­ treated the ambassador as a friend.  She shewed no other feeling towards me than that of deep esteem, and she behaved to C——­ C——­ with the tender affection of a sister.  M. de Bernis was kind, polite, and amiable with M——­ M——­, but he never ceased to take the greatest interest in every word uttered by C——­ C——­, who played her part to perfection, because she had only to follow her own nature, and, that nature being beautiful, C——­ C——­ could not fail to be most charming.

We had passed five delightful hours, and the ambassador seemed more pleased even than any of us.  M——­ M——­ had the air of a person satisfied with her own work, and I was playing the part of an approving spectator.  C——­ C——­ looked highly pleased at having secured the general approbation, and there was, perhaps, a slight feeling of vanity in her arising from the special attention which the ambassador had bestowed on her.  She looked at me, smiling, and I could easily understand the language of her soul, by which she wished to tell me that she felt perfectly well the difference between the society in which she was then, and that in which her brother had given us such a disgusting specimen of his depravity.

After midnight it was time to think of our departure, and M. de Bernis undertook all the complimentary part.  Thanking M——­ M——­ for the most agreeable supper he had ever made in his life, he contrived to make her offer a repetition of it for two days afterwards, and he asked me, for the sake of appearance, whether I should not find as much delight in that second meeting as himself.  Could he have any doubt of my answering affirmatively?  I believe not, for I had placed myself under the necessity of being compliant.  All being agreed, we parted company.

The next day, when I thought of that exemplary supper, I had no difficulty in guessing what the ultimate result would be.  The ambassador owed his great fortune entirely to the fair sex, because he possessed to the highest degree the art of coddling love; and as his nature was eminently voluptuous he found his advantage in it, because he knew how to call desires into existence, and this procured him enjoyments worthy of his delicate taste.  I saw that he was deeply in love with C——­ C——­, and I was far from supposing him the man to be satisfied with looking at her lovely eyes.  He certainly had some plan arranged, and M——­ M——­, in spite of all her honesty, was the prime manager of it.  I knew that she would carry it on with such delicate skill that I should not see any evidence of it.  Although I did not feel disposed to shew more compliance than was strictly just, I foresaw that in the end I should be the dupe, and my poor C——­ C——­ the victim, of a cunningly-contrived trick.  I could not make