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honour, said Madame de L-, interrupting La Fleur, to send a billet
in return.

Madame de L- had said this with such a tone of reliance upon the
fact, that La Fleur had not power to disappoint her expectations;--
he trembled for my honour,--and possibly might not altogether be
unconcerned for his own, as a man capable of being attached to a
master who could be wanting en egards vis a vis d'une femme! so
that when Madame de L- asked La Fleur if he had brought a letter,--
O qu'oui, said La Fleur: so laying down his hat upon the ground,
and taking hold of the flap of his right side pocket with his left
hand, he began to search for the letter with his right;--then
contrariwise.--Diable! then sought every pocket--pocket by pocket,
round, not forgetting his fob: --Peste!--then La Fleur emptied them
upon the floor,--pulled out a dirty cravat,--a handkerchief,--a
comb,--a whip lash,--a nightcap,--then gave a peep into his hat,--
Quelle etourderie! He had left the letter upon the table in the
auberge;--he would run for it, and be back with it in three
minutes.

I had just finished my supper when La Fleur came in to give me an
account of his adventure: he told the whole story simply as it
was: and only added that if Monsieur had forgot (par hazard) to
answer Madame's letter, the arrangement gave him an opportunity to
recover the faux pas;--and if not, that things were only as they
were.

Now I was not altogether sure of my etiquette, whether I ought to
have wrote or no;--but if I had,--a devil himself could not have
been angry: 'twas but the officious zeal of a well meaning
creature for my honour; and, however he might have mistook the
road,--or embarrassed me in so doing,--his heart was in no fault,--
I was under no necessity to write;--and, what weighed more than
all,--he did not look as if he had done amiss.

- 'Tis all very well, La Fleur, said I.--'Twas sufficient. La
Fleur flew out of the room like lightning, and returned with pen,
ink, and paper, in his hand; and, coming up to the table, laid them
close before me, with such a delight in his countenance, that I
could not help taking up the pen.

I began and began again; and, though I had nothing to say, and that
nothing might have been expressed in half a dozen lines, I made
half a dozen different beginnings, and could no way please myself.

In short, I was in no mood to write.

La Fleur stepp'd out and brought a little water in a glass to
dilute my ink,--then fetch'd sand and seal-wax.--It was all one; I
wrote, and blotted, and tore off, and burnt, and wrote again.--Le
diable l'emporte! said I, half to myself,--I cannot write this
self-same letter, throwing the pen down despairingly as I said it.

As soon as I had cast down my pen, La Fleur advanced with the most
respectful carriage up to the table, and making a thousand
apologies for the liberty he was going to take, told me he had a

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