236 A TOTIR BOUND MY GARDEN. 



odour affects the brain. There is an old Latin verse which 

 says so : — 



" Cum faba florescit, stultorum copia crescit." 



It would not be uninstructive to try to recollect what fits 

 of folly I have been guilty of during my life at the bean- 

 fiowering season. It will be all the more easy for me to do so, 

 from my having, for a length of time, been in the habit of 

 writing down every evening the impressions of the day; that 

 is the only means of thoroughly explaining both actions and 

 thoughts. 

 June. 



"How fortunate! I have succeeded. That kind M. 

 d'Eloges has consented to take my note for 300 francs, in ex- 

 change for which he has given me a watch and 25 francs in 

 money. I have sold my watch again for 40 francs. I am 

 all right then, now. I can send my bouquet, and be at the 

 theatre." 



The beans were in blossom. 

 June. 



" Can it then be true that age thus renders hearts cold? 

 and is blindness of the mind, with some people, the result of 

 years? And is that what is called experience? 



" Here is an old friend who has just preached me a sermon 

 three hours long. He pretends that I am wrong in making 

 my happiness, my future, and my life, depend upon a woman 

 and her caprices. I answered him that she whom I loved is 

 not a woman, but an angel, and that a caprice was beneath 

 both her heart and her understanding. I found I was soon 

 obliged to give up the idea of making him renounce his 

 opinion. There are sentiments that everybody cannot com- 

 prehend, and man is easily led to declare that that which he 

 does not see does not exist, and that which he does not think 

 is a folly. 



" But I can say, there could not arise in my mind either 

 a doubt or a fear, if all men united were to come and say to 

 me: She is deceiving you, she will forget you, she will be 

 false to her promises — I would not ask even herself to reassure 

 me ! 



" No, no, I am sure of her and of her love. I could not 



