I continued for ten days to call upon Madame X. C. V., but finding myself
coldly welcomed, decided to go there no more.




CHAPTER VIII

Fresh Adventures--J. J. Rousseau--I set Up A Business--Castel--Bajac--A
Lawsuit is Commenced Against Me--M. de Sartine

Mdlle. X. C. V. had now been in the convent for a month, and her affair
had ceased to be a common topic of conversation. I thought I should hear
no more of it, but I was mistaken. I continued, however, to amuse myself,
and my pleasure in spending freely quite prevented me from thinking about
the future. The Abbe de Bernis, whom I went to see regularly once a week,
told me one day that the comptroller-general often enquired how I was
getting on. "You are wrong," said the abbe, "to neglect him." He advised
me to say no more about my claims, but to communicate to him the means I
had spoken of for increasing the revenues of the state. I laid too great
store by the advice of the man who had made my fortune not to follow it.
I went to the comptroller, and trusting in his probity I explained my
scheme to him. This was to pass a law by which every estate, except that
left by father to son, should furnish the treasury with one year's
income; every deed of gift formally drawn up being subject to the same
provision. It seemed to me that the law could not give offence to anyone;
the heir had only to imagine that he had inherited a year later than was
actually the case. The minister was of the same opinion as myself, told
me that there would not be the slightest difficulty involved, and assured