magnificent pleasures, warned me, in spite of myself, that there were
rocks ahead. My business would have kept me going for a long time, if
custom had not been paralyzed by the war; but as it was, I, like
everybody else, experienced the effect of bad times. My warehouse
contained four hundred pieces of stuffs with designs on them, but as I
could not hope to dispose of them before the peace, and as peace seemed a
long way off, I was threatened with ruin.

With this fear I wrote to Esther to get her father to give me the
remainder of my money, to send me a sharp clerk, and to join in my
speculation. M. d'O---- said that if I would set up in Holland he would
become responsible for everything and give me half profits, but I liked
Paris too well to agree to so good an offer. I was sorry for it
afterwards.

I spent a good deal of money at my private house, but the chief expense
of my life, which was unknown to others but which was ruining me, was
incurred in connection with the girls who worked in my establishment.
With my complexion and my pronounced liking for variety, a score of
girls, nearly all of them pretty and seductive, as most Paris girls are,
was a reef on which my virtue made shipwreck every day. Curiosity had a
good deal to do with it, and they profited by my impatience to take
possession by selling their favours dearly. They all followed the example
of the first favourite, and everyone claimed in turn an establishment,
furniture, money, and jewels; and I knew too little of the value of money
to care how much they asked. My fancy never lasted longer than a week,
and often waned in three or four days, and the last comer always appeared
the most worthy of my attentions.

As soon as I had made a new choice I saw no more of my old loves, but I