CHAPTER XXI.
This is a notable couple--and have met But for some secret knavery.
-- The Tanner of Tyburn.
I had now been several weeks in Paris, and I was not altogether dissatisfied with the manner in which they had been spent.

I had enjoyed myself to the utmost, while I had, as much as possible, combined profit with pleasure; viz.

if I went to the Opera in the evening, I learned to dance in the morning; if I drove to a soiree at the Duchesse de Perpignan's, it was not till I had fenced an hour at the Salon des Assauts d'Armes; and if I made love to the duchess herself it was sure to be in a position I had been a whole week in acquiring from my master of the graces; in short, I took the greatest pains to complete my education.

I wish all young men who frequented the Continent for that purpose, could say the same.
One day (about a week after the conversation with Vincent, recorded in my last CHAPTER) I was walking slowly along one of the paths in the Jardin des Plantes, meditating upon the various excellencies of the Rocher de Cancale and the Duchesse de Perpignan, when I perceived a tall man, with a thick, rough coat, of a dark colour (which I recognized long before I did the face of the wearer) emerging from an intersecting path.
He stopped for a few moments, and looked round as if expecting some one.
Presently a woman, apparently about thirty, and meanly dressed, appeared in an opposite direction.

She approached him; they exchanged a few words, and then, the woman taking his arm, they struck into another path, and were soon out of sight.