The count rushed down the stairs and out of the hotel. The miserable
C---- was choking, and I could not help pitying her; for a woman has in
her tears a weapon which through my life I have never known to resist. I
considered that if I left the hotel without paying anything, people might
laugh at my anger and suppose that I had a share in the swindle; I
requested the landlord to bring me the account, intending to pay half of
it. He went for it, but another scene awaited me. Madame C----, bathed in
tears, fell on her knees, and told me that if I abandoned her she was
lost, for she had no money and nothing to leave as security for her hotel
bill.

"What, madam! Have you not letters of exchange to the amount of six
thousand florins, or the goods bought with them?"

"The goods are no longer here; they have all been taken away, because the
letters of exchange, which you saw, and which we considered as good as
cash, only made the merchants laugh; they have sent for everything. Oh!
who could have supposed it?"

"The scoundrel! He knew it well enough, and that is why he was so anxious
to bring me here. Well, it is right that I should pay the penalty of my
own folly."

The bill brought by the landlord amounted to forty sequins, a very high
figure for three days; but a large portion of that sum was cash advanced
by the landlord, I immediately felt that my honour demanded that I should
pay the bill in full; and I paid without any hesitation, taking care to
get a receipt given in the presence of two witnesses. I then made a
present of two sequins to the nephew of the landlord to console him for
the thrashing he had received, and I refused the same sum to the wretched