her I waited for the closing minuet, for having danced with Rose I felt
obliged in common decency to dance with the other two, especially as I
owed them the same debt.

At day-break the ladies began to vanish, and as I put the Morins into my
carriage I told them that I could not have the pleasure of seeing them
again that day, but that if they would come and spend the whole of the
day after with me I would have the horoscope ready.

I went to the kitchen to thank the worthy door-keeper for having made me
cut such a gallant figure, and I found the three nymphs there, filling
their pockets with sweetmeats. He told them, laughing, that as the master
was there they might rob him with a clear conscience, and I bade them
take as much as they would. I informed the door-keeper that I should not
dine till six, and I then went to bed.

I awoke at noon, and feeling myself well rested I set to work at the
horoscope, and I resolved to tell the fair Mdlle. Roman that fortune
awaited her at Paris, where she would become her master's mistress, but
that the monarch must see her before she had attained her eighteenth
year, as at that time her destiny would take a different turn. To give my
prophecy authority, I told her some curious circumstances which had
hitherto happened to her, and which I had learnt now and again from
herself or Madame Morin without pretending to heed what they said.

With an Ephemeris and another astrological book, I made out and copied in
six hours Mdlle. Roman's horoscope, and I had so well arranged it that it
struck Valenglard and even M. Morin with astonishment, and made the two
ladies quite enthusiastic.