It was after one of these little excursions in
which I had the pleasure of seeing the aunt at her ease and very
cheerful, and in which my spirits were much enlivened, that I wrote to
the vicar very rapidly and very ill, an epistle in verse which will be
found amongst my papers.
* Since I have neglected to relate here a trifling, hut memorable
adventure I had with the said Grimm one day, on which we were to
dine at the fountain of St. Vandrille, I will let it pass: hut when
I thought of it afterwards, I concluded that he was brooding in his
heart the conspiracy he has, with so much success, since carried
into execution.
I had nearer to Paris another station much to my liking with M.
Mussard, my countryman, relation, and friend, who at Passy had made
himself a charming retreat, where I have passed some very peaceful
moments. M. Mussard was a jeweler, a man of good sense, who, after
having acquired a genteel fortune, had given his only daughter in
marriage to M. de Valmalette, the son of an exchange broker, and
maitre d'hotel to the king, took the wise resolution to quit
business in his declining years, and to place an interval, of repose
and enjoyment between the hurry and the end of life. The good man
Mussard, a real philosopher in practice, lived without care, in a very
pleasant house which he himself had built in a very pretty garden,
laid out with his own hands. In digging the terraces of this garden he
found fossil shells, and in such great quantities that his lively
imagination saw nothing but shells in nature.
Pages:
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538