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my wallet and a cupful of water from the well, my God, I
would accept of them and find it in my heart to kneel down
upon the ground and give thanks to the powers above for
the happiness vouchsafed me by the Giver of good things.
With these words he approached the goblet to his lips, took
a complacent draught of the cordial, slicked his hair and,
opening his bosom, out popped a locket that hung from a
silk riband, that very picture which he had cherished ever
since her hand had wrote therein. Gazing upon those fea-
tures with a world of tenderness, Ah, Monsieur, he said, had
you but beheld her as I did with these eyes at that affecting
instant with her dainty tucker and her new coquette cap
(a gift for her feastday as she told me prettily) in such an
artless disorder, of so melting a tenderness, ‘pon my con-
science, even you, Monsieur, had been impelled by generous
nature to deliver yourself wholly into the hands of such an
enemy or to quit the field for ever. I declare, I was never so
touched in all my life. God, I thank thee, as the Author of
my days! Thrice happy will he be whom so amiable a crea-
ture will bless with her favours. A sigh of affection gave
eloquence to these words and, having replaced the locket
in his bosom, he wiped his eye and sighed again. Benefi-
cent Disseminator of blessings to all Thy creatures, how
great and universal must be that sweetest of Thy tyrannies
which can hold in thrall the free and the bond, the simple
swain and the polished coxcomb, the lover in the heyday
of reckless passion and the husband of maturer years. But
indeed, sir, I wander from the point. How mingled and im-
perfect are all our sublunary joys. Maledicity! he exclaimed