The beginning was not favorable, and I was afraid of being compromised.  During the first two courses, the young woman ate with a discretion which really amazed me.  The dessert came, it was brilliant as it was abundant, and gave me some hopes.  I was not deceived, for she not only ate what was set before her, but sent for dishes which were at the other end of the table.  She tasted every thing, and we were surprised that so small a stomach could contain so much.  My diagnostics succeeded and science triumphed.

Two years after I met this same lady, who had been married a week.  She had become far more beautiful, was something of a coquette, for fashion permitted her to exhibit her charms.  Her husband was a man worth looking at, but he was like one of those ventriloquists who laugh on one side of the face and weep on the other.  He was very fond of his wife, but when any one spoke to her, quivered with jealousy.  The latter sentiment prevailed, for he took his wife to one of the most remote departments of France, and I, at least, can write no more of her biography.

I made a similar observation about the Duke of Decres, long minister of marine.

We knew that he was large, short, dark and square; that his face was round, that his chin protruded, that his lips were thick, and that he had a giant’s mouth.  I therefore had no hesitation in proclaiming him fond of good cheer and of women.

This physiognomical remark I whispered to a woman I thought very pretty and very discreet.  I was mistaken though, for she was a daughter of Eve, and my secret was made known.  One evening his excellency was informed of the idea I had deduced from his face.

I ascertained this the next day, by a pleasant letter which I received from the Duke, in which he insisted that he had not the two qualities I had attributed to him.

I confessed myself beaten.  I replied that nature does nothing in vain; that she had evidently formed him for certain duties, and that if he did not fulfil them he contradicted his appearance.  That besides, I had no right to expect such confidence, etc., etc.

There the correspondence terminated, but a few days after all Paris was amused by the famous encounter between the minister and his cook, in which his excellency did not get the best of the matter.  If after such an affair the cook was not dismissed, (and he was not,) I may conclude that the duke was completely overcome by the artist’s talents, and that he could not find another one to suit his taste so exactly, otherwise he would have gotten rid of so warlike a servant.

As I wrote these lines, during a fine winter evening, Mr. Cartier, once first violinist of the opera, entered my room and sat by the fire.  I was full of my subject, and looked attentively at him.  I said, “My dear Professor, how comes it that you, who have every feature of gourmandise, are not a gourmand?” “I am,” said he, “but I make abstinence a duty.”  “Is that an act of prudence?” He did not reply, but he uttered a sigh, a la Walter Scott.