You had a connection with Don Jerome's housekeeper, and you left her, when you went away, a certain souvenir which she communicated to a friend of hers, who, in perfect good faith, made a present of it to his wife.

This lady did not wish, I suppose, to be selfish, and she gave the souvenir to a libertine who, in his turn, was so generous with it that, in less than a month, I had about fifty clients.

The following months were not less fruitful, and I gave the benefit of my attendance to everybody, of course, for a consideration.
There are a few patients still under my care, but in a short time there will be no more, as the souvenir left by you has now lost all its virtue.
You can easily realize now the joy I felt when I saw you; you are a bird of good omen.

May I hope that your visit will last long enough to enable you to renew the source of my fortune ?" I laughed heartily, but he was grieved to hear that I was in excellent health.

He remarked, however, that I was not likely to be so well off on my return, because, in the country to which I was going, there was abundance of damaged goods, but that no one knew better than he did how to root out the venom left by the use of such bad merchandise.