THE ROSE

PARIS

T was now my turn to ask the old French officer, "what was the matter?" for a cry of "Haussez les mains, Mon

I

sieur l'Abbé," reëchoed from a dozen different parts of the parterre, was as unintelligible to me, as my apostrophe to the monk had been to him.

He told me, it was some poor Abbé in one of the upper loges, who he supposed had got planted perdu behind a couple of grissets, in order to see the opera, and that the parterre espying him were insisting upon his holding up both his hands during the representation.—And can it be supposed, said I, that an ecclesiastic would pick the grisset's pockets? The old French officer smiled, and whispering in my ear, open'd a door of knowledge which I had no idea of.

Good God! said I, turning pale with astonishment-is it possible, that a people so smit with sentiment should at the same time be so unclean, and so unlike themselves.-Quelle grossierté! added I.

The French officer told me it was an illiberal sarcasm at the church, which had begun in the theater about the time the Tartuffe was given in it, by Molière-but, like other remains of Gothic manners, was declining.-Every nation, continued he, have their refinements and grossiertés, in which they take the lead, and lose it of one another by turns-that he had been in most countries, but never in one where he found not some delicacies, which others seemed to want, Le POUR et le CONTRE se trovent en chaque nation; there is a balance, said he, of good and bad everywhere; and nothing but the knowing it is so, can emancipate one half of the world from the prepossessions which it holds against the other-that the advantage of travel, as it regarded the sçavoir vivre, was by seeing a great deal both of men and manners; it taught us

mutual toleration; and mutual toleration, concluded he, making me a bow, taught us mutual love.

The old French officer delivered this with an air of such candor and good sense, as coincided with my first favorable impressions of his character.-I thought I loved the man; but I fear I mistook the object-'t was my own way of thinking the difference was, I could not have expressed it half so well.

It is alike troublesome to both the rider and his beast-if the latter goes pricking up his ears, and starting all the way at every object which he never saw before. I have as little torment of this kind as any creature alive; and yet I honestly confess, that many a thing gave me pain, and that I blush'd at many a word the first month-which I found inconsequent and perfectly innocent the second.

Madame de Rambouliet, after an acquaintance of about six weeks with her, had done me the honor to take me in her coach about two leagues out of town. Of all women, Madame de Rambouliet is the most correct; and I never wish to see one of more virtues and purity of heart. In our return back, Madame de Rambouliet desired me to pull the cord. I ask'd her if she wanted anything.-Rien que pisser, said Madame de Rambouliet.

Grieve not, gentle traveler, to let Madame de Rambouliet p-ss on. And, ye fair mystic nymphs! go each one pluck your rose, and scatter 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 chaste CASTALIA, I could not have served at her fountain with a more respectful decorum.

W

THE FILLE DE CHAMBRE

PARIS

HAT the old French officer had deliver'd upon traveling, bringing Polonius's advice to his son upon the same subject into my head—and that bringing in Hamlet; and Hamlet the rest of Shakspere's works, I stopp'd at the Quai de Conti in my return home, to purchase the whole set.

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

-And does the Count de B- —, said I, read Shakspere? C'est un Esprit fort, replied the bookseller.-He loves English books; and what is more to his honor, Monsieur, he loves the English too. You speak this so civilly, said I, that it is enough to oblige an Englishman to lay out a Louis d'or or two at your shop.-The bookseller made a bow, and was going to say something, when a young decent girl of about twenty, who by her air and dress seemed to be fille de chambre to some devout woman of fashion, came into the shop and asked for Les Egarements du Cœur & de l'Esprit: the bookseller gave her the book directly; she pulled out a little green satin purse, run round with a ribband of the same color and putting her finger and thumb into it, she took out the money and paid for it. more to stay me in the shop, we both door together.

As I had nothing walk'd out of the

-And what have you to do, my dear, said I, with The Wanderings of the Heart, who scarce know yet you have one; nor, till love has first told you it, or some faithless shepherd has made it ache, canst thou ever be sure it is so?—

Le Dieu m'en garde! said the girl.-With reason, said Ifor if it is a good one, 't is pity it should be stolen; 't is a little treasure to thee, and gives a better air to your face, than if it was dress'd out with pearls.

The young girl listened with a submissive attention, holding her satin purse by its ribband in her hand all the time.-'T is a very small one, said I, taking hold of the bottom of itshe held it towards me-and there is very little in it, my dear, said I; but be but as good as thou art handsome, and heaven will fill it: I had a parcel of crowns in my hand to pay for Shakspere; and as she had let go the purse entirely, I put a single 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 't was one of those quiet, thankful sinkings, 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, said I, if I had not given this along with it: but now, when you see the crown, you'll remember it-so don't, my dear, lay it out in ribbands.

Upon my word, Sir, said the girl, earnestly, I am incapable -in saying which, as is usual in little bargains of honor, she gave me her hand.-En vérité, Monsieur, je mettrai cet argent apart, said she.

When a virtuous convention is made betwixt man and woman, it sanctifies their most private walks; so notwithstanding it was dusky, yet as both our roads lay the same way, we made no scruple of walking along the Quai de Conti together.

She made me a second courtesy in setting off, and before we got twenty yards from the door, as if she had not done enough before, she made a sort of a little stop to tell me again-she thank'd me.

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 see innocence, my dear, in your face-and foul befall the man who ever lays a snare in its way!

The girl seem'd affected some way or other with what I said she gave a low sigh-I found I was not impowered to inquire at all after it-so said nothing more till I got to the corner of the Rue de Nevers, where we were to part:

-But is this the way, my dear, said I, to the Hotel de Modene? she 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, said I, for two reasons; first I shall please myself, and next I shall give you the protection of my company as far on your way as I can. The girl was sensible I was civil-and said, she wish'd the Hotel de Modene was in the Rue de St. Pierre-You live there? said I. She told me she was fille de chambre to Madame R-Good God! said I, 't is the very lady for whom I have brought a letter from Amiens.-The girl told me that Madame R, she believed, expected a stranger with a letter, and was impatient to see him-so I desired the girl to present my compliments to Madame R, and say I would certainly wait upon her in the morning.

We stood still at the corner of the Rue de Nevers whilst this pass'd. We then stopp'd a moment whilst she disposed of her Egarements du Cœur, &c., more commodiously than carrying them in her hand-they were two volumes; so I held the second for her whilst she put the first into her pocket; and then she held her pocket, and I put in the other after it.

'T is sweet to feel by what fine-spun threads our affections are drawn together.

We set off afresh, and as she took her third step, the girl put her hand within my arm-I was just bidding her-but she did it of herself with that undeliberating simplicity, which show'd it was out of her head that she had never seen me before. For my own part, I felt the conviction of consanguinity so strongly, that I could not help turning half round to look in her face, and see if I could trace out anything in it of a family likeness.-Tut! said I, are we not all relations?

When we arrived at the turning up of the Rue de Guineygaude, I stopp'd to bid her adieu for good and all: the girl would thank me again for my company and kindness. She