A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

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. - I would have given anything to have got to the bottom of it; and that, not out of curiosity, - ’tis so low a principle of enquiry, in general, I would not purchase the gratification of it with a two-sous piece; - but a secret, I thought, which so soon and so certainly soften’d the heart of every woman you came near, was a secret at least equal to the philosopher’s stone; had I both the Indies, I would have given up one to have been master of it.

I toss’d and turn’d it almost all night long in my brains to no manner of purpose; and when I awoke in the morning, I found my spirits as much troubled with my dreams, as ever the King of Babylon had been with his; and I will not hesitate to affirm, it would have puzzled all the wise men of Paris as much as those of Chaldea to have given its interpretation.

LE DIMANCHE. PARIS.

 It was Sunday; and when La Fleur came in, in the morning, with my coffee and roll and butter, he had got himself so gallantly array’d, I scarce knew him.

I had covenanted at Montreuil to give him a new hat with a silver button and loop, and four louis d’ors, pour s’adoniser, when we got to Paris; and the poor fellow, to do him justice, had done wonders with it.

He had bought a bright, clean, good scarlet coat, and a pair of breeches of the same. - They were not a crown worse, he said, for the wearing. - I wish’d him hang’d for telling me. - They look’d so fresh, that though I knew the thing could not be done, yet I would rather have imposed upon my fancy with thinking I had bought them new for the fellow, than that they had come out of the Rue de Friperie.

This is a nicety which makes not the heart sore at Paris.

He had purchased, moreover, a handsome blue satin waistcoat, fancifully enough embroidered: - this was indeed something the worse for the service it had done, but ’twas clean scour’d; - the gold had been touch’d up, and upon the whole was rather showy than otherwise; - and as the blue was not violent, it suited with the coat and breeches very well: he had squeez’d out of the money, moreover, a new bag and a solitaire; and had insisted with the fripier upon a gold pair of garters to his breeches knees. - He had purchased muslin ruffles, bien brodees, with four livres of his own money; - and a pair of white silk stockings for five more; - and to top all, nature had given him a handsome figure, without costing him a sous.

He entered the room thus set off, with his hair dressed in the first style, and with a handsome bouquet in his breast. - In a word, there was that look of festivity in everything about him, which at once put me in mind it was Sunday; - and, by combining both together, it instantly struck me, that the favour he wish’d to ask of me the night before, was to spend the day as every body in Paris spent it besides.  I had scarce made the conjecture, when La Fleur, with infinite humility, but with a look of trust, as if I should not refuse him, begg’d I would grant him the day, pour faire le galant vis-a-vis de sa maitresse.

Now it was the very thing I intended to do myself vis-a-vis Madame de R-. - I had retained the remise on purpose for it, and it would not have mortified my vanity to have had a servant so well dress’d as La Fleur was, to have got up behind it: I never could have worse spared him.

But we must feel, not argue in these embarrassments. - The sons and daughters of Service part with liberty, but not with nature, in their contracts; they are flesh and blood, and have their little vanities and wishes in the midst of the house of bondage, as well as their task-masters; - no doubt, they have set their self-denials at a price, - and their expectations are so unreasonable, that I would often disappoint them, but that their condition puts it so much in my power to do it.

Behold, - Behold, I am thy servant - disarms me at once of the powers of a master. -

Thou shalt go, La Fleur! said I.

- And what mistress, La Fleur, said I, canst thou have picked up in so little a time at Paris?  La Fleur laid his hand upon his breast, and said ’twas a petite demoiselle, at Monsieur le Count de B-’s. - La Fleur had a heart made for society; and, to speak the truth of him, let as few occasions slip him as his master; - so that somehow or other, - but how, - heaven knows, - he had connected himself with the demoiselle upon the landing of the staircase, during the time I was taken up with my passport; and as there was time enough for me to win the Count to my interest, La Fleur had contrived to make it do to win the maid to his.  The family, it seems, was to be at Paris that day, and he had made a party with her, and two or three more of the Count’s household, upon the boulevards.

Happy people! that once a week at least are sure to lay down all your cares together, and dance and sing and sport away the weights of grievance, which bow down the spirit of other nations to the earth.

THE FRAGMENT. PARIS.

 La Fleur had left me something to amuse myself with for the day more than I had bargain’d for, or could have enter’d either into his head or mine.

He had brought the little print of butter upon a currant leaf: and as the morning was warm, and he had a good step to bring it, he had begg’d a sheet of waste paper to put betwixt the currant leaf and his hand. - As that was plate sufficient, I bade him lay it upon the table as it was; and as I resolved to stay within all day, I ordered him to call upon the traiteur, to bespeak my dinner, and leave me to breakfast by myself.

When I had finished the butter, I threw the currant-leaf out of the window, and was going to do the same by the waste paper; - but stopping to read a line first, and that drawing me on to a second and third, - I thought it