"In a few days, I was sent for to the Hôtel--to attend the Duchesse de ---- the mistress of the said _femme de chambre_. This was an event beyond my hopes, and I determined to profit by it. I found the Duchesse suffering under a malady--if malady it could be called--to which I have since discovered grand ladies are peculiarly subject; namely, a superfluity of _embonpoint_, occasioned by luxurious habits and the want of exercise. "'I am very much indisposed, Doctor,' lisped the lady, 'and your prescription has done my _femme de chambre_ so much good, that I determined to send for you. I am so very ill, that I am fast losing my shape; my face, too, is no longer the same; and my feet and hands are not to be recognised.' "I drew out my watch, felt her pulse, looked grave, inquired--though it was useless, her _embonpoint_ having revealed it--what were her general habits and _régime_; and then, having written a prescription, urged the necessity of her abandoning _café au lait_, rich _consommés_, and high-seasoned _entrées_; recommended early rising and constant exercise; and promised that a strict attention to my advice would soon restore her health, and with it her shape. "I was told to call every day until further orders; and I, pleading the excess of occupation which would render my daily visits to her so difficult, consented to make them, only on condition that my fair patient was to walk with me every day six times around the garden of her hôtel; for I guessed she was too indolent to persevere in taking exercise if left to herself. "The system I pursued with her succeeded perfectly. I was then a very active man, and I walked so fast that I left the Duchesse every day when our promenade ended bathed in a copious perspiration; which, aided by the medicine and sparing _régime_, soon restored her figure to its former symmetry. "At her hôtel, I daily met ladies of the highest rank and distinction, many of whom were suffering from a similar cause, the same annoyance for which the Duchesse consulted me; and I then discovered that there is no malady, however grave, so distressing to your sex, ladies, or for the cure of which they are so willing to submit to the most disagreeable _régime_, as for aught that impairs their personal beauty. "When her female friends saw the improvement effected in the appearance of the Duchesse by my treatment, I was consulted by them all, and my fame and fortune rapidly increased. I was proclaimed to be the most wonderful physician, and to have effected the most extraordinary cures; when, in truth, I but consulted Nature, and aided her efforts.