in endeavouring to convince you that it was a
quite contrary motive than ingratitude to you,
that carried me from Bolognia:--but the story
is too long for the compass of a letter; when
you know it, you will, perhaps, own this action,
whatever you may now think of it, merits
more, than any thing I could have done, your
approbation:--this seeming riddle will be easily
expounded, if, on the recovery of your
wounds, you repair immediately to Paris, where
you will find

_Your much obliged_,

LOUISA."


Having finished this little billet, a scruple rose in her head, that
being now under the care of a father, she ought not to do any thing of
this nature without his permission:--she had already told him how
greatly she had been indebted to du Plessis for his honourable passion,
but had not mentioned the least tittle of the tender impressions it had
made on her; and she so lately knew him to be her father, that she was
ashamed to make him the confidant of an affair of this nature, but then,
when she considered the quality of du Plessis, which she was now
confirmed of, and the sense Dorilaus testified he had of his behaviour
to her while he believed her so infinitely his inferior, made her
resolve to drain her modesty so far as to inform him all.

She began by relating her accidental meeting with madam, the countess