they were all too large. The beautiful Griffet meafured them one by one across my hand-It would not alter the dimenfions-She begged I would try a fingle pair, which feemed to be leat.-She held it open-my hand flipped into it at once-It will not do, faid I, fhaking my head a little-No, faid fhe, doing the fame thing.

There are certain combined looks of simple subtlety -where whim, and fenfe, and ferioufnefs, and nonsense are so blended, that all the languages of Babel fet loose together could not express them—they are communicated and caught fo inftantaneously, that you can scarce say which party is the infector. I leave it to your men of words to fwell pages about itit is enough in the prefent to say again, the gloves would not do; fo folding our hands within our arms, we both loll'd upon the counter-it was narrow, and there was just room for the parcel to lie between us.

The beautiful Griffet looked fometimes at the gloves, then fideways to the window, then at the gloves and then at me. I was not difpofed to break filence-I followed her example. So I looked at the gloves, then to the window, then at the gloves, and then at her and fo on alternately.

I found I loft confiderably in every attack-the had a quick black eye, and fhot through two fuch long and filken eye-lafhes with fuch penetration, that fhe looked into my very heart and reins-It may feem strange, but I could actually feel she did—

I

It is no matter, faid I, taking up a couple of the pairs next me, and putting them into my pocket.

I was fenfible the beautiful Griffet had not afk'd above a fingle livre above the price-I with'd fhe had afk'd a livre more, and was puzzling my brains how to bring the matter aboutDo you think, my dear Sir, faid fhe, miftaking my embarraffment, that I could ask a fous too much of a stranger- and of a ftranger whofe politenefs, more than his want of gloves, has done me the honour to lay himself at my mercy?-M'en croyez capable?-Faith! not I, faid I; and if you were, you are welcome-So counting the money into her hand, and with a lower bow than one generally makes to a fhopkeeper's wife, I went out, and her lad with his parcel followed me.

SENT. JOURNEY, PAGE 95.

THE PIE MAN.

EEING a man ftanding with a basket on the other fide of a ftreet, in Verfailles, as if he had fomething to fell, I bid La Fleur go up to him and inquiré for the Count de B***'s hotel.

La Fleur returned a little pale: and told me it was a Chevalier de St. Louis felling pâtés-It is impoffible, La Fleur! faid I.La Fleur could no more account for the phenomenon than myfelf; but perfifted in his

story:

ftory: he had feen the croix, fet in gold, with its red riband, he faid, tied to his button-hole and had

looked into his basket, and feen the pâtés which the Chevalier was felling; fo could not be mistaken in

that.

Such a reverse in man's life awakens a better principle than curiofity: I could not help looking for fome time at him as I fat in the remife--the more I looked at him, his croix, and his basket, the ftronger they wove themselves into my brain-I got out of the remife, and went towards him.

He was begirt with a clean linen apron which fell below his knees, and with a fort of bib which went half way up his breaft; upon the top of this, but a little below the hem, hung his croix. His basket of little pâtés was covered over with a white damafk napkin; another of the fame kind was spread at the bottom; and there was a look of propreté and neatness throughout; that one might have bought his pâtés of him, as much from appetite as fentiment.

He made an offer of them to neither; but stood ftill with them at the corner of an hotel, for those to buy who chose it, without folicitation.

He was about forty-eight-of a fedate look, fomething approaching to gravity. I did not wonder.-I went up rather to the basket than him, and having lifted up the napkin and taken one of his pâtés into my hand-I begged he would explain the appearance which affected me.

He

He told me in a few words, that the beft part of his life had paffed in the fervice, in which, after spending a small patrimony, he had obtained a company ard the croix with it; but that, at the conclufion of the laft peace, his regiment being reformed, and the whole corps, with those of some other regiments, left without any provifion,- -he found himself in a wide world without friends, without a livre-and indeed, faid he, without any thing but this-(pointing, as he faid it, to his croix)-the poor Chevalier won my pity, and he finished the fcene with winning my

efteem too.

The king, he faid, was the most generous of Princes; but his generofity could neither relieve nor reward every one, and it was only his misfortune to be amongst the number. He had a little wife he said, whom he loved, who did the pútiferie; and added, he felt no difhonour in defending her and himself from want in this way-unless Providence had offered him a better.

It would be wicked to withhold a pleasure from the good, in paffing over what happened to this poor Chevalier of St. Louis about nine months after.

1

It seems, he usually took his ftand towards the iron gates which lead up to the palace; and as his croix had caught the eyes of numbers, numbers had made the fame inquiry which I had done.

-He had told them the fame ftory, and always with fo much modefty and good fenfe, that it had reached at laft

the

the King's ears-who hearing the Chevalier had been a gallant officer, and refpected by the whole regiment as a man of honour and integrity-he broke up his little trade by a penñion of fifteen hundred livres a year.

SENT. JOURNEY, PAGE 148.

THE SWORD.

W

RENNE S.

'HEN ftates and empires have their periods of declenfion, and feel in their turns what diftrefs and poverty is—I stop not to tell the causes which gradually brought the houfe d'E**** in Britanny into decay. The Marquis d'E**** had fought up against his condition with great firmness; wishing to preferve, and ftill fhew to the world fome little fragments of what his ancestors had been-their indifcretions had put it out of his power. There was enough left for the little exigencies of obfcurity-But he had two boys who looked up to him for light-he thought they deserved it. He had tried his fword-it could not open the way the mounting was too expenfive-and fimple economy was not a match for it-there was no refource but commerce.

Ia