He would come, go out, return as he pleased, telling me every day that it would be the morrow, and when the morrow came there was always some impediment.

At last, at seven o'clock this morning, the woman told me that the count was obliged to go into the country, that a hackney coach would bring me back to his hotel, and that he would come and see me on his return.

Then, affecting an air of sadness, she told me that I must give her back the watch because the count had forgotten to pay the watchmaker for it.

I handed it to her immediately without saying a word, and wrapping the little I possessed in my handkerchief I came back here, where I arrived half an hour since." "Do you hope to see him on his return from the country ?" "To see him again! Oh, Lord! why have I ever seen him ?" She was crying bitterly, and I must confess that no young girl ever moved me so deeply as she did by the expression of her grief.

Pity replaced in my heart the tenderness I had felt for her a week before.