any creature alive; and yet I honestly confess, that many a thing gave me pain, and that I blufh'd at many a word the first month which I found incon

fequent and perfectly innocent the fecond.

7

Madame de Rambouliet, after an acquaintance of about fix weeks with her, had done me the honour to take me in her coach about two leagues out of town Of all women, Madame de Rambouliet is the most corre&t; and I never wish to fee one of more virtues and purity of heart In our return back, Madame de Rambouliet defired me to pull the cord I afked her if he wanted any thing

fer, faid Madame de Rambouliet

Rien que pif

Grieve not, gentle traveller, to let Madame de

Rambouliet p-fs on - And, ye fair mystic nymphs! go each one pluck your rofe, and fcatter them in your path for Madame de Rambouliet did no more

I handed. Madame de Rambouliet out of the coach; and had I been the priest of the chafte CASTALIA, I could not have ferved at her fountain with a more respectful decorum.

END OF BOOK I

What the old French officer had delivered upon travelling, bringing Polonius's advice to his fon upon the fame fubje& into my head and that bringing in Hamlet; and Hamlet, the rest of Shakespear's works, I ftopp'd at the Quai de Conti in my return home, to purchase the whole fet,

The bookfeller faid he had not a fet in the world Comment! faid I; taking one up out of a fet which lay upon the counter betwixt us, →→→ He said, they were fent him only to be got bound, and were to be fent back to Versailles in the morning to the Count de B --,

And does the Count de B, faid I, read, Shakespear? C'est un Esprit fort, replied the bookfeller. He loves English books; and what is more to his honour, Monfieur, he loves the English too. You speak this fo civilly, faid I, that 'tis enough to

oblige

oblige an Englishman to lay out a Louis d'or or two at your shop The bookfeller made a bow,

and

was going to fay fomething, when a young decent girl of about twenty, who by her air and dress feemed to be fille de chambre to fome devout woman of fashion, came into the fhop and afked for Les Egarements du Coeur et de l'Efprit: the bookfeller gave her the book directly; the pulled out a little green fattin purse run round with a ribband of the same colour, and putting her finger and thumb into it, the took out the money, and paid for it. As I had nothing more to stay me in the fhop, we both walked out at the door together.

And what have you to do, my dear, faid I, with The Wanderings of the Heart, who fcarce know yet you have one? nor, till love has firit told you it, or fome faithlefs fhepherd has made it ache, can'st thou ever be fure it is fo. Dieu m'en guarde!

faid the girl.

With reason,

said I

for if it

is a good one, 'tis pity it should be stolen: 'tis a little treasure to thee, and gives a better air to your face, than if it was drefs'd out with pearls.

The young girl littened with a submissive attention, holding her fattin purse by its ribband in her hand all the time 'Tis a very small one, faid I, taking hold of the bottom of it fhe held it towards me and there is very little in it, my dear, faid I; but be but as good as thou art handfome, and hea

ven will fill it: I had a parcel of crowns in my hand to pay for Shakespear; and as fhe had let go the purfe entirely, I put a fingle one in; and tying up the ribband in a bow- knot, returned it to her,

The young girl made me more a humble courtesy than a low one →→→ 'twas one of thofe quiet, thankful finkings where the spirit bows itself down the body does no more than tell it, I never gave a girl a crown in my life which gave me half the pleasure.

My advice, my dear, would not have been worth a pin to you, faid I, if I had not given this along with it: but now, when you fee the crown, you'll remember it fo don't, my dear, lay it out in ribbands,

Upon my word, Sir, faid the girl, earneftly, 1 am incapable in faying which, as is ufual in little bargains of honour, fhe gave me her hand verité, Monfieur, je mettrai cet argent a part, faid The.

En

When a virtuous convention is made betwixt man and woman, it fanctifies their most private walks; fo notwithstanding it was dufky, yet, as both our roads lay the fame way, we made no fcruple of walking

along the Quai de Conti together.

She made me a fecond courtesy in fetting off, and before we got twenty yards from the door, as if she

had

had not done enough before, fhe made a fort of a

little ftop to tell me again

.

It was a small tribute, I told her, which I could. not avoid paying to virtue, and would not be mistaken in the person I had been rendering it to for the world but I fee innocence, my dear, in your and foul befal the man who ever lays a fnare, in its way!

face

The girl feem'd affected fome way or other with what I faid I found I was fhe gave a low figh,

not impowered to enquire at all after it nothing more till I got to the corner of the Nevers, where we were to part

fo faid

Rue de

But is this the way, my dear, faid I, to the hotel de Modene? he told me it was or, that I might go by the Rue de Guineygaude, which was the next turn. Then I'll go, my dear, by the Rue de Guineygaude, faid I, for two reafons; first I fhall please myself, and next I fhall give you the protection of my company as far on your can. The girl was fenfible I was civil

way as I

and faid,

fhe wifh'd the hotel de Modene was in the Rue de St. Pierre You live there? faid I.

1

fhe was fille de chambre to Madame R

She told me

Good

God! faid I, 'tis the very lady for whom I have brought a letter from Amiens The girl told me

G 5

that