"My preceptor shook his head joyfully. When he saw the door close he rubbed his hands; we chatted about the Spanish war, and I repaired to the Bue de Provence, no more dreaming that I had just received the first part of a grand conjugal lesson than I thought of the conquest of Constantinople by General Diebitch. I reached my Amphit- ryon at the moment when the pair were seated at table, having awaited me for the half -hour decreed by the ecumen- ical discipline of gastronomy. It was, I believe, in open- ing a paU de foie gras that my pretty hostess said to her husband, with a resolute air : 'Alexander, if you were very good you would give me that set of diamonds that we saw at Fossin's/
" They are yours, then,' pleasantly exclaimed my com- rade, drawing from his pocket-book three one thousand franc notes which he flourished in the sparkling eyes of his wife. '1 can no more resist the pleasure of offering them,' he added, 'than you that of accepting them. It is the anni- versary of the day when I saw you for the first time ; per- haps the diamonds may cause you to remember it ?"
"'Mediant!' said she, with a ravishing smile, and draw- ing from her bosom a bouquet of violets, she cast them with a childish gesture in my friend's face. Alexander handed her the price of the diamonds, exlaiming: 'I had seen the flowers !"
"I can never forget the quick movement and the rapa- cious gayety with which the little woman seized the three bank notes — like a cat placing her sheathed claw upon a mouse. Blushing with pleasure she folded them and put them — where the violets had shed their perfume a moment before. I could not help thinking of my Professor of Mathematics. I saw, at that time, no difference between him and his pupil, save that of economy and extravagance.
