and by the aid of many flasks of Orviette or bottles of Lacrima (wines,
Monsieur, that I do not commend to any one who desires to keep his
stomach sound and his secrets safe), I gathered these particulars.

"Our Don Juan, since the loss of a wife in the first year of marriage,
had rarely visited Paris where he had a domicile--his ancestral hotel
there he had sold.

"But happening to visit that capital of Europe a few months before we
come to our dates at Aix-la-Chapelle, he made acquaintance with Madame
Marigny, a natural daughter of high-placed parents, by whom, of course,
she had never been acknowledged, but who had contrived that she should
receive a good education at a convent; and on leaving it also contrived
that an old soldier of fortune--which means an officer without fortune--
who had served in Algiers with some distinction, should offer her his
hand, and add the modest dot they assigned her to his yet more modest
income. They contrived also that she should understand the offer must be
accepted. Thus Mademoiselle 'Quelque Chose' became Madame Marigny, and
she, on her part, contrived that a year or so later she should be left a
widow. After a marriage, of course the parents washed their hands of
her--they had done their duty. At the time Don Juan made this lady's
acquaintance nothing could be said against her character; but the
milliners and butchers had begun to imply that they would rather have
her money than trust to her character. Don Juan fell in love with her,
satisfied the immediate claims of milliner and butcher, and when they
quitted Paris it was agreed that they should meet later at Aix-la-
Chapelle. But when he resorted to that sultry and, to my mind,
unalluring spa, he was surprised by a line from her saying that she had
changed her name of Marigny for that of Duval.