that in a very little time his coolness forsook him, and he grew in as
great a rage as herself. At last she flew out of the room. The Abbe,
trembling with passion, shook me most cordially by the hand, grinned
from ear to ear, said it was a capital joke, wished me good-by as if he
loved me better than his eyes, and left the house my most irreconcilable
and bitter foe!

How could it be otherwise? The rivalship the Abbe might have forgiven;
such things happened every day to him: but the having been made so
egregiously ridiculous the Abbe could not forgive; and the Abbe's was a
critical age for jesting on these matters, sixty or so. And then such
unpalatable sarcasms on his appearance! "'Tis all over in that
quarter," said I to myself, "but we may find another," and I drove out
that very day to pay my respects to the Regent.

What a pity it is that one's pride should so often be the bane of one's
wisdom. Ah! that one could be as good a man of the world in practice as
one is in theory! my master-stroke of policy at that moment would
evidently have been this: I should have gone to the Regent and made out
a story similar to the real one, but with this difference, all the
ridicule of the situation should have fallen upon me, and the little
Dubois should have been elevated on a pinnacle of respectable
appearances! This, as the Regent told the Abbe everything, would have
saved me. I saw the plan; but was too proud to adopt it; I followed
another course in my game: I threw away the knave, and played with the
king, /i.e./, with the Regent. After a little preliminary conversation,
I turned the conversation on the Abbe.

"Ah! the /scelerat/!" said Philip, smiling, "'tis a sad dog, but very
clever and /loves me/, he would be incomparable, if he were but decently