think I learnt them by heart.

"Remember that it is on your first interview that your safety
depends. Let him learn, through you, those utter tendernesses
which have been sought for him in vain heretofore. He is like
the monarch of old, who was willing to pay the half of his crown
for an unknown pleasure. Lebel is wearied in seeking every week
for new fruit. He is quite disposed to serve you, and will second
you in the best manner. You are about to become the centre of
attraction to all courtiers, and noble . You must
expect that they will endeavor to cry you down, because you will
have carried off from them a gem to which every family has its
pretensions. You must at first stand firmly before the storm, but
afterward you will find all enlist themselves under your banner,
who have no wife, sister, nor daughter; that is, all who have no
mistress to offer to the king. You must attach these to you by
place and favor: they must be first thought of, and then you must
think of yourself and me, my dear girl."

"All this is well enough," I replied, "but as yet I am nothing."

"! to-morrow you will be everything," cried comte
Jean, with his determined energy. "But we must think about
this morrow. Make haste, noble comtesse; go to all the milliners,
seek what is elegant rather than what is rich. Be as lovely,
pleasing, and gay as possible; this is the main point, and God
will do all the rest."

He pronounced this blasphemy in a laughing tone, and I confess I
could not help joining in the laugh, and then hastened to comply