Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/75

 formed one. Now the games of chance are better managed and more equal; but at that time, the police tolerating those places called etouffoirs, they were not contented with slipping a card or managing the suits as they liked—sometimes at M. Lafitte's, Messrs de S, jun., and A. de la Rock's—the knowing ones had conventional signs so combined that they must succeed. Two sittings cleared me of a hundred louis; I had enough to spare still, but it was decreed that the money of the baroness should soon leave my company. The destined agent of its dissipation was a very pretty woman, whom I met at a table d'hote which I sometimes frequented. Rosine, for that was her name, at first showed an exemplary disinterestedness. A month afterwards I was her acknowledged lover, without having spent anything but for dinners, theatres, coach-hire, gowns, gloves, ribands, flowers, &c., all which things cost nothing at Paris, when we do not pay for them.

More and more enamoured of Rosine, I never left her. One morning, whilst at breakfast, I found her thoughtful; I pressed her with enquiries, which she resisted, and finished by avowing to me that she was troubled about a trifle due to her milliner and upholsterer. I offered my services instantly, which were refused with remarkable magnanimity, and I could not even learn the names of her two creditors. Many very excellent people would have left the matter here, but, like a true knight, I had not a moment's rest until Divine, the waiting-maid, had given me the desired addresses. From the Rue Vivienne, where Rosine lived, who was called madame de Saint Michel, I ran to the upholsterer, in the Rue de Clery. I told him the purpose of my visit, and he immediately overwhelmed me with politenesses, as is usually the case under such circumstances. He handed me the bill, which, to my consternation, amounted to twelve hundred francs; but I was too far gone to recede now. At the milliner's the same scene took place, with an