"I read your reports every day. I am pleased with them, they interest me; they are very satisfying, and, thanks to you, I have the harvest without the trouble of reaping." "The king overwhelms me," I said to his majesty, "and his approbation is a favour which imposes new duties; and I will endeavour to prove myself worthy of them." Instead of leaving the ball, the king seated himself on a sofa near at hand, and said to me: "But tell me, what is all this I hear from Lord Stuart? It is very extraordinary, and sounds like a romance." When the king seated himself while speaking to me, the persons who accompanied him held themselves discreetly aside. I related to the king the history of the pirate of Porquerolles; he listened with interest, put several questions to me, thanked me very graciously, and withdrew. When the king had left, I became the centre of attraction; they could make nothing out of it. His majesty was leaving, he happens to meet me, and thereupon he remains a quarter of an hour in particular conversation with me. Decidedly, I must be a man of the highest importance. I know that nothing is more ridiculous than to appear to take pride in such a success, and I prepared to quit the ball, when I saw Madame de Fersen coming towards me. I had not seen her for some time, and she seemed so changed, so fallen away, that I was shocked. I saluted her without waiting for her, and retired, though she looked entreatingly at me, and she was evidently coming towards me with the intention of speaking to me. The next day I received a letter from her. She begged me in touching terms to come and see her, apologising for her ingratitude, and making some gracious allusions to the past. My first impulse was to go to Catherine at once. I reflected, however, that this meeting was not likely to change the fate of my love. I remembered the harshness with which Madame de Fersen had behaved, and foolishly fancied my dignity required that I should not yield to the first advance. I wrote a very cold and polite letter, apologising for not going to her as she requested, and said she could not fail to understand my reasons. To this she made no answer. I concluded that she had not a very great desire to see me since she did not insist. I therefore congratulated myself on the course I had taken. I soon heard that the prince had been called back to Russia by his court, and was surprised, I must confess, that his wife did not accompany him. As to Madame de V----, I had implored her, for the sake of the friendship she professed for me, to cease tormenting so cruelly M. de Sérigny, declaring I would no longer lend myself to her coquettish manœuvres; that, moreover, she was compromising herself frightfully, and that sooner or later she would find herself ill-received in society. She answered that I spoke like a Quaker, but for the joke of the thing she was going to live without a shade of coquetry.