of the most interesting this author has yet produced.]

"Madame ----," said I to her. She blushed yet more.

"I have no husband, Monsieur. I am an unmarried woman."

"Ah! Mlle, will you be pleased to tell me why you have come so far,
and why you waited so long to speak with me? Can I be useful to you
in any manner? Have you any letter to give me from any one in your
neighborhood?"

"Ah, Monsieur, I have no letter, I have nothing to ask of you, and the
last thing in the world that I should have done, would have been to
get a letter from any of the gentlemen in my neighborhood to you. I
would not even have suffered them to know that I came to Marseilles
to see you. They would have thought me a vain creature, who sought to
magnify her importance by visiting people who are so famous. Ah, that
would never do!"

"What then do you wish to say?"

"Nothing, _Monsieur_."

"How can that be? You should not _for nothing_ have wasted two days in
coming from Aix to Marseilles, and should not have waited for me here
until sunset, when to-morrow you must return home."

"It is, however, true, Monsieur. I know you will think me very
foolish, but ... I have nothing to tell you, and not for a fortune
would I consent that people at Aix should know whither I am gone."