She
would not seem to see it; she opened her little magazine, and laid
all her laces one after another before me; - unfolded and folded
them up again one by one with the most patient sweetness. - I might
buy, - or not; - she would let me have everything at my own price: -
the poor creature seem'd anxious to get a penny; and laid herself
out to win me, and not so much in a manner which seem'd artful, as
in one I felt simple and caressing.
If there is not a fund of honest gullibility in man, so much the
worse; - my heart relented, and I gave up my second resolution as
quietly as the first. - Why should I chastise one for the trespass
of another? If thou art tributary to this tyrant of an host,
thought I, looking up in her face, so much harder is thy bread.
If I had not had more than four louis d'ors in my purse, there was
no such thing as rising up and showing her the door, till I had
first laid three of them out in a pair of ruffles.
- The master of the hotel will share the profit with her; - no
matter, - then I have only paid as many a poor soul has PAID before
me, for an act he COULD not do, or think of.
THE RIDDLE. PARIS.
When La Fleur came up to wait upon me at supper, he told me how
sorry the master of the hotel was for his affront to me in bidding
me change my lodgings.
A man who values a good night's rest will not lie down with enmity
in his heart, if he can help it. - So I bid La Fleur tell the master
of the hotel, that I was sorry on my side for the occasion I had
given him; - and you may tell him, if you will, La Fleur, added I,
that if the young woman should call again, I shall not see her.
This was a sacrifice not to him, but myself, having resolved, after
so narrow an escape, to run no more risks, but to leave Paris, if
it was possible, with all the virtue I enter'd it.
C'est deroger a noblesse, Monsieur, said La Fleur, making me a bow
down to the ground as he said it. - Et encore, Monsieur, said he,
may change his sentiments; - and if (par hazard) he should like to
amuse himself, - I find no amusement in it, said I, interrupting
him. -
Mon Dieu! said La Fleur, - and took away.
In an hour's time he came to put me to bed, and was more than
commonly officious: - something hung upon his lips to say to me, or
ask me, which he could not get off: I could not conceive 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 hotel.
