by several officers in uniform who congratulated him. At the dinner-table he was in a better humour than I have ever seen him before."
(Ah! he is ambitious then! I must make a note of that.)
"Pardon, my dear, I hasten to conclude, etc., etc. To-morrow I will finish the letter."
······
"Now, good morning; here I am again at your service. To-day my mistress Sophie . . ."
(Ah ! we will see what she says about Sophie. Let us go on!)
". . . was in an unusually excited state. She went to a ball, and I was glad that I could write to you in her absence. She likes going to balls, although she gets dreadfully irritated while dressing. I cannot understand, my dear, what is the pleasure in going to a ball. She comes home from the ball at six o'clock in the early morning, and to judge by her pale and emaciated face, she has had nothing to eat. I could, frankly speaking, not endure such an existence. If I could not get partridge with sauce, or the wing of a roast chicken, I don't know what I should do. Porridge with sauce is also tolerable, but I can get up no enthusiasm for carrots, turnips, and artichokes."
The style is very unequal! One sees at once that it has not been written by a man. The
