For a whole month there was not a day when Marguerite had not eight or ten people to meals.

Prudence, on her side, brought down all the people she knew, and did the honours of the house as if the house belonged to her.
The duke's money paid for all that, as you may imagine; but from time to time Prudence came to me, asking for a note for a thousand francs, professedly on behalf of Marguerite.

You know I had won some money at gambling; I therefore immediately handed over to Prudence what she asked for Marguerite, and fearing lest she should require more than I possessed, I borrowed at Paris a sum equal to that which I had already borrowed and paid back.

I was then once more in possession of some ten thousand francs, without reckoning my allowance.

However, Marguerite's pleasure in seeing her friends was a little moderated when she saw the expense which that pleasure entailed, and especially the necessity she was sometimes in of asking me for money.