vast ideas; but Paris being so far inland, it was not likely I should run post a hundred miles out of it, to try the experiment— the Parisian barber meant nothing

The pail of water, standing beside the great deep, makes certainly but a sorry figure in speech- but 'twill be said - it has one advantage 'tis in the next room, and the truth of the buckle may be tried in it without more ado, in a single moment.

In honest truth, and upon a more candid revision of the matter, The French expression professes more than it performs.

I think I can see the precise and distinguishing marks of national characters more in these nonsensical minutiae, than in the most important matters of state; where great men of all nations talk and stalk so much alike, that I would not give nine-pence to chuse amongst them.

:

I was so long in getting from under my barber's hands, that it was too late to think of going with my letter to Madame R- that night but when a man is once dressed at all points for going out, his reflections turn to little account so, taking down the name of the hotel de Modène where I lodged, I walked forth without any determination where to go I shall consider of that, said I, as I walk along.

HAIL, ye small sweet courtesies of life, for smooth do ye make the road of it! like grace and beauty which beget inclinations to love at first sight; 'tis ye who open this door and let the stranger in.

Pray, Madame, said I, have the goodness to tell me which way I must turn to go to the Opera comique. Most willingly, Monsieur, said she, laying aside her work

--

I had given a cast with my eye into half a dozen shops as I came along, in search of a face not likely to be disordered by such an interruption; till at last this hitting my fancy, I had walked in.

She was working a pair of ruffles as she sat in a low chair, on the far side of the shop facing the door

·Très-volontiers; most willingly, said she, laying her work down upon a chair next her, and rising up from the low chair she was sitting in, with so cheerful a movement, and so cheerful a look, that, had I been laying out fifty louis d'or with her, I should have said -«This woman is grateful. >>

You must lurn, Monsieur, said she, going with me to the door of the shop, and pointing the way down the street I was to take-you must turn first

to your left hand-mais prenez garde-there are two turns; and be so good as to take the second then go down a little way, and you'll see a church, and when you are past it, give yourself the trouble to turn directly to the right, and that will lead you to the foot of the Pont-Neuf, which you must and there, any one will do himself the pleasure to shew you

cross

She repeated her instructions three times over to me, with the same good-natured patience the third time as the first; and if tones and manners have a meaning, which certainly they have, unless to hearts which shut them out-she seemed really interested, that I should not lose myself.

I will not suppose it was the woman's beauty, notwithstanding she was the handsomest grisette, I think, I ever saw, which had much to do with the sense I had of her courtesy; only I remember, when I told her how much I was obliged to her, that I looked very full in her eyes, and that I repeated my thanks as often as she had done her instructions.

I had not got ten paces from the door, before I found I had forgot every tittle of what she had said —so looking back, and seeing her still standing in the door of the shop, as if to look whether I went right or not I returned back, to ask her whether the first turn was to my right or left

for that I had absolutely forgot. Is it possible!

said she, half laughing.

"Tis very possible,

replied I, when a man is thinking more of a woman, than of her good advice.

As this was the real truth - she took it, as every woman takes a matter of right, with a slight courtesy.

– Attendez, said she, laying her hand upon my arm to detain me, whilst she called a lad out of the back-shop to get ready a parcel of gloves. I am just going to send him, said she, with a packet into that quarter; and if you will have the complaisance to step in, it will be ready in a moment, and he shall attend you to the place. So I walked in with her to the far side of the shop, and taking up the ruffle in my hand which she laid upon the chair, as if I had a mind to sit, she sat down herself in her low chair, and I instantly sat myself down beside her.

He will be ready, Monsieur, said she, in a moment And in that moment, replied I, most willingly would I say something very civil to you for all these courtesies. Any one may do a casual act of good-nature, but a continuation of them shews it is a part of the temperature; and certainly, added I, if it is the same blood which comes from the heart, which descends to the extremes (touching her wrist), I am sure you must have one of the best pulses of any woman in the world-Feel it, said she, holding out her arm. So, laying down my hat, I took hold of her fingers in one hand,

and applied the two fore-fingers of my other to the artery

Would to heaven! my dear Eugenius, thou hadst passed by, and beheld me sitting in my black coat, and in my lack-a-day-sical manner, counting the throbs of it, one by one, with as much true devotion as if I had been watching the critical ebb or flow of her fever - How wouldst thou have laughed and moralized upon my new profession! and thou shouldst have laughed and moralized on- -Trust me, my dear Eugenius, I should have said, « there are worse occupations in this world than feeling a woman's pulse ». — But a grisette's! thou wouldst have said—and in an open shop, Yorick!.

So much the better: for when my views are direct, Eugenius, I care not if all the world saw me feel it.

I

XXXIII.

THE HUSBAND.

PARIS.

HAD counted twenty pulsations, and was going on fast towards the fortieth, when her husband coming unexpected from a back parlour into the shop, put me a little out in my reckoning.-'Twas nobody but her husband, she said - so I began a fresh score— - Monsieur is so good, quoth she, as he passed by us, as to give himself the trouble of feeling my pulse-The husband took off his hat,