- Almighty Director of every event in my life!
said the old gentleman, looking up earnestly, and raising his hands
towards heaven, - Thou, whose hand has led me on through such a
labyrinth of strange passages down into this scene of desolation,
assist the decaying memory of an old, infirm, and broken-hearted
man; - direct my tongue by the spirit of thy eternal truth, that
this stranger may set down nought but what is written in that BOOK,
from whose records, said he, clasping his hands together, I am to
be condemn'd or acquitted! - the notary held up the point of his pen
betwixt the taper and his eye. -
It is a story, Monsieur le Notaire, said the gentleman, which will
rouse up every affection in nature; - it will kill the humane, and
touch the heart of Cruelty herself with pity. -
- The notary was inflamed with a desire to begin, and put his pen a
third time into his ink-horn - and the old gentleman, turning a
little more towards the notary, began to dictate his story in these
words: -
- And where is the rest of it, La Fleur? said I, as he just then
enter'd the room.
THE FRAGMENT, AND THE BOUQUET. {1} PARIS.
When La Fleur came up close to the table, and was made to
comprehend what I wanted, he told me there were only two other
sheets of it, which he had wrapped round the stalks of a bouquet to
keep it together, which he had presented to the demoiselle upon the
boulevards.
