this tête-à-tête, which commenced with a
kiss.

"Mademoiselle," said I, with ardour, " I
venture here to intercede with you for some
one who loves you more than you think, and
who is exceedingly unhappy!"

"And 'tis you who speak to me on his
account!" replied she, mistaking the
ambiguous sense of this declaration; "but his
timidity has not prevented his declaring
sentiments which I share with him; I
know how unhappy he is, and I blame his
incredible weakness. I am more unhappy
than he. To-morrow I shall have ceased to
suffer!"

"Is it possible that you love him, my dear
Nanette!" cried I, squeezing her hand.
"Then his happiness only depends upon yourself,
and I entreat you not to let him languish.
Permit me to visit you, to love you
constantly! I am now the happiest of men!"

"Monsieur, you are not then a friend of
his?" she replied, disengaging herself from
my hands. "And that I should think he
had confided all to you! When I really
love, it is for life; and it is better to die
than to renounce the beloved object. Adieu,
Monsieur; you will be sorry to have so ill
understood me!"

She had escaped before I had time to think
of detaining her, and she scolded me in these
terms from the top of the staircase, up which
she had run, while I remained below silent
and stupefied at these strange maledictions,
which I did not understand, especially when
I compared them with the opening portion of
our friendly interview.

I remembered the verses in Virgil where
Galatea hides herself in the osier-ground, in
order to be followed and caught there; and
the tardy inspiration started me on the track
of the fair fugitive. But I could not catch
her: in vain I entreated her outside the door
and through the key-hole; she did not deign
to answer me, the pitiless Nanette! The
silence which reigned in her chamber even
made me think that she had chosen some
other hiding-place, and I descended slowly,
not without making a halt at every step and
raising my head to listen whether she did
not call me.

This flight, which was not caused by
coquetry, discouraged me at first by scattering
doubts in the midst of a passion which
was as incredulous, as it was inexperienced.
Still, it is not the first blow which destroys a
deliberately formed opinion, and I gradually
returned to the belief that I was beloved.
My doubts were even effaced by the shadow
of favourable presumptions, and I interpreted
to my advantage what had before
appeared the most adverse to my hopes. We
so easily deceive ourselves about what we
desire! I had no difficulty in drawing a
happy omen from the conversation which had
so greatly surprised and afflicted me; I
persuaded myself that Nanette had withdrawn
herself from my blunt declaration to conceal
her trouble and delay her defeat; I ended by
concluding that the sensitive book-stitcher was
not less impatient than myself for some
occasion which might hasten the ordinary
dénouement. I therefore determined to make
this occasion arise as soon as possible -- the
imagination of a young man is so bold and
extravagant when spurred on by love, and
when it gallops unbridled over the waste-
ground of desire!

It was summer, and as the heat of the day
is retained during the night in those houses
where the fresh air does not penetrate,
Nanette usually left her window half-open
during the evening, in order to breathe a
less suffocating atmosphere while she slept,
and, while watching her motions, I became
aware of this dangerous habit.

I had often calculated the distance between
our two windows, and every time, this
distance, which I devoured in idea, was
diminished in my eyes; this day I familiarised
myself with it, by means of measuring it
according to the desire of passing it which I
felt -- fifteen feet in breadth, and sixty in
height; I had only to throw a bridge from
one side of the street to the other; and,
enchanted with this audacious project, which
would have put a fairy's wand to the proof, I
excited myself by the certainty of success to
venture on these risks and perils. All my
castles in the air were at that time situated
in the Rue d'Ecosse.

I immediately busied myself about the
means of creating a bridge which should have
sufficient solidity for me to pass it, without
imminent danger of my carrying away the
flexible flooring under my weight. I had,
when twenty-four, a sure foot and an eye
steady enough to save me from trips and
giddiness. Moreover, love is a lucky guide
in the greatest hazards.

When the night had caused the lights to
be put out, and set the neighbours snoring, I
groped my way into the street, where I had
remarked a pile of planks which had been
brought yesterday to the front of a cabinet-
maker's shop. I had taken care to hang out
from my balcony a long and stout rope, to
which I fastened two oaken planks, and by
which I afterwards hoisted them to my
chamber-window, without noise and without
accident. I mentally triumphed over my
future conquest, when I found myself the
proprietor of these capital boards, which I
was not slow in making use of; thus, with
my rope I fastened the shortest and the
thickest to the sill of my window, from which
it projected about six feet, and on this first
scaffolding I pushed my second plank to the
opposite window, in such a manner that the
extremities had scarcely at each end a point
of support.

Oh! how I leapt with joy while admiring
this bridge of a single arch, boldly thrown
across the street, and giving me a pathway two