ceive what it was; and, indeed, gave myself little trouble to find it out, as I had another riddle so much more interesting upon my mind, which was that of the man's asking charity before the door of the hôtel-I would have given any thing to have got to the bottom of it; and that, not out of curiosity — it is so low a principle of inquiry in general, I would not purchase the gratification of it with a two-sous piece but a secret, I thought, which so soon and so certainly softened the heart of every woman you came near, was a secret at least equal to the philosopher's stone: had I had both the Indies, I would have given up one to have been master of it.

I tossed and turned it almost all night long in my brains to no manner of purpose; and when I awoke in the morning, I found my spirit as much troubled with my dreams, as ever the king of Babylon * had been with his; and I will not hesitate to affirm, it would have puzzled all the wise men of Paris, as much as those of Chaldea, to have given its interpretation.

LVI.

LE DIMANCHE.

PARIS.

Ir was Sunday; and when La Fleur came in, in the morning, with my coffee and roll and

Nabuchodonosor. See Daniel, II, v. 1-2.

butter, he had got himself so gallantly arrayed, I scarce knew him.

I had covenanted at Montreuil to give him a new hat with a silver button and loop, and four louis d'or pour s'adoniser, when we got to Paris; and the poor fellow, to do him justice, had done wonders with it.

He had bought a bright, clean, good scarlet coat, and a pair of breeches of the same They were not a crown worse, he said, for the wearing -I wished him hanged for telling me they looked so fresh, that though I knew the thing could not be done, yet I would rather have imposed upon my fancy with thinking I had bought them new for the fellow, than that they had come out of the rue de la Friperie.

This is a nicety which makes not the heart sore at Paris.

He had purchased, moreover, a handsome blue satin waistcoat, fancifully enough embroidered this was indeed something the worse for the service it had done, but it was clean scouredthe gold had been touched up, and upon the whole was rather showy than otherwise- and as the blue was not violent, it suited with the coat and breeches very well he had squeezed out of the money, moreover, a new bag and a solitaire, and had insisted with the fripier upon a gold pair of garters to his breeches knees - He had purchased muslin ruffles, bien brodées, with

:

four livres of his own money

- and a pair of white silk stockings for five more— and, to top all, nature had given him a handsome figure, without costing him a sous.

He entered the room thus set off, with his hair dressed in the first style, and with a handsome bouquet in his breast in a word, there was that look of festivity in every thing about him, which at once put me in mind it was sunday

and by combining both together, it instantly struck me, that the favour he wished to ask of me the night before, was to spend the day, as every body in Paris spent it, besides. I had scarce made the conjecture, when La Fleur, with infinite humility, but with a look of trust, as if I should not refuse him, begged I would grant him the day, pour faire le galant vis-à-vis de sa maitresse.

Now it was the very thing I intended to do myself vis-à-vis Madame de R--I had retained the remise on purpose for it, and it would not have mortified my vanity to have had a servant so well dressed as La Fleur was, to have got up behind it: I never could have worse spared him.

But we must feel, not argue in these embarrassments the sons and daughters of service part with liberty, but not with nature, in their contracts; they are flesh and blood, and have their little vanities and wishes in the midst of the house of bondage, as well as their task-masters doubt, they have set their self-denials at a price

- no

— and their expectations are so unreasonable, that I would often disappoint them, but that their condition puts it so much in my power to do it.

.

Behold!-Behold I am thy servant *— disarms me at once of the powers of a master —

-Thou shalt go, La Fleur! said I.

-And what mistress, La Fleur, said I, canst thou have picked up in so little a time at Paris? La Fleur laid his hand upon his breast, and said it was a petite demoiselle at Monsieur le comte de B-'s - La Fleur had a heart made for society; and, to speak the truth of him, let as few occasions slip him as his master so that some how or other but how heaven knows he had connected himself with the demoiselle upon the landing of the stair-case, during the time I was taken up with my passport; and as there was time enough for me to win the count to my interest, La Fleur had contrived to make it do to win the maid to his- The family, it seems, was to be at Paris that day, and he had made a party with her, and two or three more of the count's houshold, upon the boulevarts.

Happy people! that once a week at least are sure to lay down all your cares together, and dance, and sing, and sport away the weights of grievance, which bow down the spirit of other nations to the earth!

+ Esdras, II, v. 36.

LVII.

THE FRAGMENT.

PARIS.

LA FLEUR had left me something to amuse myself with, for the day, more than I had bargained for, or could have entered either into his head or mine.

He had brought the little print of butter upon a currant leaf; and as the morning was warm, and he had a good step to bring it, he had begged a sheet of waste paper to put betwixt the currant leaf and his hand-As that was plate sufficient, I bad him lay it upon the table as it was; and as I resolved to stay within all day, I ordered him to call upon the traiteur to bespeak my dinner, and leave me to breakfast by myself.

When I had finished the butter, I threw the currant leaf out of the window, and was going to do the same by the waste paper - but stopping to read a line first, and that drawing me on to a second and third—I thought it better worth; so I shut the window, and drawing a chair up to it, I sat down to read it.

It was in the old French of Rabelais's time, and for aught I know might have been wrote by him it was moreover in a gothic letter, and that so faded and gone off by damps and length of time, it cost me infinite trouble to make any thing of it - I threw it down; and then wrote a letter