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with me two hours that evening in my bedchamber, and 'twas against
the rules of his house.--Very well, said I, we'll all part friends
then,--for the girl is no worse,--and I am no worse,--and you will
be just as I found you.--It was enough, he said, to overthrow the
credit of his hotel.--Voyez vous, Monsieur, said he, pointing to
the foot of the bed we had been sitting upon.--I own it had
something of the appearance of an evidence; but my pride not
suffering me to enter into any detail of the case, I exhorted him
to let his soul sleep in peace, as I resolved to let mine do that
night, and that I would discharge what I owed him at breakfast.

I should not have minded, Monsieur, said he, if you had had twenty
girls--'Tis a score more, replied I, interrupting him, than I ever
reckon'd upon--Provided, added he, it had been but in a morning.--
And does the difference of the time of the day at Paris make a
difference in the sin?--It made a difference, he said, in the
scandal.--I like a good distinction in my heart; and cannot say I
was intolerably out of temper with the man.--I own it is necessary,
resumed the master of the hotel, that a stranger at Paris should
have the opportunities presented to him of buying lace and silk
stockings and ruffles, et tout cela;--and 'tis nothing if a woman
comes with a band-box.--O, my conscience! said I, she had one but I
never look'd into it.--Then Monsieur, said he, has bought nothing?-
-Not one earthly thing, replied I.--Because, said he, I could
recommend one to you who would use you en conscience.--But I must
see her this night, said I.--He made me a low bow, and walk'd down.

Now shall I triumph over this maitre d'hotel, cried I,--and what
then? Then I shall let him see I know he is a dirty fellow.--And
what then? What then?--I was too near myself to say it was for the
sake of others.--I had no good answer left;--there was more of
spleen than principle in my project, and I was sick of it before
the execution.

In a few minutes the grisette came in with her box of lace.--I'll
buy nothing, however, said I, within myself.

The grisette would show me everything.--I was hard to please: 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,

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