Paris.

I Promised to be sincere, and I keep my promise; but remember, Sir, you promised likewise to excuse some short errors. – You shall know all. Depend upon it, I will be ingenuous with you; and indeed you ought to depend upon it: for friendship, gratitude, probity, all equally lay me under the obligation of concealing nothing from you.

As you had foreseen, four months absence has absolutely obliterated the inclination of my grandson for Madame d’ Ostalis. He saw her again, not indeed without some confusion and some pleasure; but, being destitute of hope, he is also void of passion. I then observed his looks and attentions turn towards Madame de Valcy, who, making the same observation, has played off every art in the science of coquetry to seduce him. One evening as we returned from supping with her, the Chevalier expressed a very great desire to go to the ball at the Opera House. I answered, I would carry him thither some other time; he said no more, and I went to bed. His chamber is next to mine, separated only by an anti-chamber, which opens to the stair-case. About an hour and an half after I had been in bed, hearing somebody stirring in his room, I called Placide, his old valet-de chambre, whom you know. When he came, I asked if his master was in bed. – Ah! good God! is he not with you? – What then can be become of him? – These words made me tremble, and Placide informed me, that my grandson had gone out of his chamber, saying, he was going into mine, and advised him to go to sleep, for he had many things to say to me, and the conversation might last a long time. Whilst Placide was giving this account, I dressed in haste, and ran into the anti-chamber.