yet she confesses herself obliged to the Marquis for having procured her so inestimable, so accomplished an acquaintance as yourself; but her concern is how to amuse you:  for she never suffers play at her house for above a livre; if you can amuse yourself with that low play till supper, ‘a la bonne heure’.  Accordingly you sit down to that little play, at which the good company takes care that you shall win fifteen or sixteen livres, which gives them an opportunity of celebrating both your good luck and your good play.  Supper comes up, and a good one it is, upon the strength of your being able to pay for it.  ’La Marquise en fait les honneurs au mieux, talks sentiments, ‘moeurs et morale’, interlarded with ‘enjouement’, and accompanied with some oblique ogles, which bid you not despair in time.  After supper, pharaoh, lansquenet, or quinze, happen accidentally to be mentioned:  the Marquise exclaims against it, and vows she will not suffer it, but is at last prevailed upon by being assured ’que ce ne sera que pour des riens’.  Then the wished-for moment is come, the operation begins:  you are cheated, at best, of all the money in your pocket, and if you stay late, very probably robbed of your watch and snuff-box, possibly murdered for greater security.  This I can assure you, is not an exaggerated, but a literal description of what happens every day to some raw and inexperienced stranger at Paris.  Remember to receive all these civil gentlemen, who take such a fancy to you at first sight, very coldly, and take care always to be previously engaged, whatever party they propose to you.  You may happen sometimes, in very great and good companies, to meet with some dexterous gentlemen, who may be very desirous, and also very sure, to win your money, if they can but engage you to play with them.  Therefore lay it down as an invariable rule never to play with men, but only with women of fashion, at low play, or with women and men mixed.  But, at the same time, whenever you are asked to play deeper than you would, do not refuse it gravely and sententiously, alleging the folly of staking what would be very inconvenient to one to lose, against what one does not want to win; but parry those invitations ludicrously, ‘et en badinant’.  Say that, if you were sure to lose, you might possibly play, but that as you may as well win, you dread ‘l’embarras des richesses’, ever since you have seen what an encumbrance they were to poor Harlequin, and that, therefore, you are determined never to venture the winning above two louis a-day; this sort of light trifling way of declining invitations to vice and folly, is more becoming your age, and at the same time more effectual, than grave philosophical refusals.  A young fellow who seems to have no will of his own, and who does everything that is asked of him, is called a very good-natured, but at the same time, is thought a very silly young fellow.  Act wisely, upon solid principles, and from true motives, but keep them to yourself, and never talk sententiously.  When you are invited to drink, say that you wish you could, but that so little makes you both drunk and sick, ’que le jeu me vaut pas la chandelle’.