Page:The fortunes of Fifi (IA fortunesoffifi00seawiala).pdf/190

 But, by a turn of fate, most unexpected, it was Cartouche who showed her a way out of her difficulties, and it filled her with delight. It was in a letter Cartouche wrote her in response to the two she had sent him, one after the other. Cartouche's letter was written in very black ink, in a large, slovenly hand, on a big sheet of paper, and Fifi knew perfectly well that he was in a rage when writing it.

"Fifi: What nonsense is this you write me, that as soon as you promised to marry Louis Bourcet you determined not to marry him? What have you been doing? Don't you know if you squander your money neither Louis Bourcet nor any man of his class will marry you? Four thousand francs for your trousseau is outrageous; as for the blue-satin bed the Empress could not buy, I can not trust myself to speak of it. If you continue acting in this way, I will not come to your wedding, nor let Toto come—that is, if Monsieur Bourcet or any other man will marry you. You seem to be bitten with the desire to do everything the Empress does, and a little more besides. You might follow the Empress' example, and going in your coach and six, with outriders, to the banking-house of Lafitte,