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164 Her name was Gratienne. She was a little woman, with a mass of dark hair, and her proﬁle was charming. Leonor was amused by the contrast between this little statuette and the opulent Leda type of Hortense. She had a supple body, fresh and delicately scented; and since she was a professional and ardently shared the pleasures she provoked, he passed several pleasant nights. The days were much less agreeable, for he had to submit to long prolix conﬁdences. There were amusing touches in her stories, but from professional ethics she refrained from ever uttering a proper name, a fact which somewhat confused her anecdotes.

One evening, however, in a moment of distraction or of conﬁdence, she allowed Leonor to turn over her little collection of post-cards.

"Besides," she added, "as you're not a Parisian, the names will tell you nothing."

Leonor looked at ships, mountains, casinos, girls bathing and many other interesting pictures. Some were signed Theobald and came from Austria, others, Paul, and came from the Pyrenees.

"Hullo, Tourlaville castle!"