One evening--it was, I think, in August, 1786--I was much surprised to meet in the salons of this lady, so exacting in the matter of gentility, two new faces which struck me as belonging to men of inferior social position. She came to me presently in the embrasure of a window where I had ensconced myself. “Tell me,” I said to her, with a glance toward one of the new-comers, “who and what is that queer species? Why do you have that kind of thing here?” “He is charming.” “Do you see him through a prism of love, or am I blind?” “You are not blind,” she said, laughing. “The man is as ugly as a caterpillar; but he has done me the most immense service a woman can receive from a man.” As I looked at her rather maliciously she hastened to add: “He’s a physician, and he has completely cured me of those odious red blotches which spoiled my complexion and made me look like a peasant woman.” I shrugged my shoulders with disgust. “He is a charlatan.” “No,” she said, “he is the surgeon of the court pages. He has a fine intellect, I assure you; in fact, he is a writer, and a very learned man.” “Heavens! if his style resembles his face!” I said scoffingly. “But who is the other?” “What other?” “That spruce, affected little popinjay over there, who looks as if he had been drinking verjuice.” “He is a rather well-born man,” she replied; “just arrived from some province, I forget which--oh! from Artois. He is sent here to conclude an affair in which the Cardinal de Rohan is interested, and his Eminence in person had just presented him to Monsieur de Saint-James. It seems they have both chosen my husband as arbitrator. The provincial didn’t show his wisdom in that; but fancy what simpletons the people who sent him here must be to trust a case to a man of his sort! He is as meek as a sheep and as timid as a girl. His Eminence is very kind to him.” “What is the nature of the affair?” “Oh! a question of three hundred thousand francs.” “Then the man is a lawyer?” I said, with a slight shrug. “Yes,” she replied. Somewhat confused by this humiliating avowal, Madame Bodard returned to her place at a faro-table.