“Thank you, Count, what am I then? I have been _here_ twenty times.” “Why, I will answer you with a story. The soul of a Jesuit one night, when its body was asleep, wandered down to the lower regions; Satan caught it, and was about to consign it to some appropriate place; the soul tried hard to excuse itself: you know what a cunning thing a Jesuit’s soul is! ‘Monsieur Satan,’ said the spirit; ‘no king should punish a traveller as he would a native. Upon my honour, I am merely here _en voyageur_.’ ‘Go then,’ said Satan, and the soul flew back to its body. But the Jesuit died, and came to the lower regions a second time. He was brought before his Satanic majesty, and made the same excuse. ‘No, no,’ cried Beelzebub; ‘once here is to be only _le diable voyageur_; twice here, and you are _le diable tout de bon_.’” “Ha! ha! ha!” said Chatran, laughing; “I then am the _diable tout de bon_! ‘tis well I _am no worse_; for we reckon the _roues_ a devilish deal worse than the very worst of the devils,--but see, the Regent approaches us.” And, leaving a very pretty and gay-looking lady, the Regent sauntered towards us. It was in walking, by the by, that he lost all the grace of his mien. I don’t know, however, that one wishes a great man to be graceful, so long as he’s familiar. “Aha, Monsieur Devereux!” said he, “we will give you some lessons in cooking to-night; we shall show you how to provide for yourself in that barbarous country which you are about to visit. _Tout voyageur doit tout savoir!_” “Avery admirable saying; which leads me to understand that Monseigneur has been a great traveller,” said I. “Ay, in all things and _all places_; eh, Count?” answered the Regent, smiling; “but,” here he lowered his voice a little, “I have never yet learned how you came so opportunely to our assistance that night. _Dieu me damne_! but it reminds me of the old story of the two sisters meeting at a gallant’s house. ‘Oh, Sister, how came _you_ here?’ said one, in virtuous amazement. ‘_Ciel! ma soeur_!’ cries the other; ‘what brought _you_?’”* * The reader will remember a better version of this anecdote in one of the most popular of the English comedies.--ED. “Monseigneur is pleasant,” said I, laughing; “but a man does now and then (though I own it is very seldom) do a good action, without having previously resolved to commit a bad one!” “I like your parenthesis,” cried the Regent; “it reminds me of my friend St. Simon, who thinks so ill of mankind that I asked him one day whether it was possible for him to despise anything more than men? ‘Yes,’ said he, with a low bow, ‘women!’” “His experience,” said I, glancing at the female part of the _coterie_, “was, I must own, likely to lead him to that opinion.” “None of your sarcasms, Monsieur,” cried the Regent.