"Nonsense," said I; "why I was repeating, to the best of my
recollection, what I heard you say on a former occasion."
"If ever I talked such stuff," said Francis Ardry, "I was a fool;
and indeed I cannot deny that I have been one: no, there's no
denying that I have been a fool. What do you think? that false
Annette has cruelly abandoned me."
"Well," said I, "perhaps you have yourself to thank for her having
done so; did you never treat her with coldness, and repay her marks
of affectionate interest with strange fits of eccentric humour?"
"Lord! how little you know of women," said Francis Ardry; "had I
done as you suppose, I should probably have possessed her at the
present moment. I treated her in a manner diametrically opposite
to that. I loaded her with presents, was always most assiduous to
her, always at her feet, as I may say, yet she nevertheless
abandoned me--and for whom? I am almost ashamed to say--for a
fiddler."
I took a glass of wine, Francis Ardry followed my example, and then
proceeded to detail to me the treatment which he had experienced
from Annette, and from what he said, it appeared that her conduct
to him had been in the highest degree reprehensible;
notwithstanding he had indulged her in everything, she was never
civil to him, but loaded him continually with taunts and insults,
and had finally, on his being unable to supply her with a sum of
money which she had demanded, decamped from the lodgings which he
had taken for her, carrying with her all the presents which at
various times he had bestowed upon her, and had put herself under
the protection of a gentleman who played the bassoon at the Italian
Opera, at which place it appeared that her sister had lately been
engaged as a danseuse.
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