CUSTOMS AND MANNERS. 



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the other peregrinations with which you are well acquainted, 

 without reckoning, once a week at least, a day fixed by one 

 of her companions for an excursion to a garden or plantation 

 in the vicinity. Not an ecclesiastic takes the religious habit, 

 nor a nun, nor a monk even, the vows, but she is the first to 

 hasten to the ceremony. At the festivals of the Blessed Virgin, 

 and the masses of the new year, her devotion is incredible : 

 she scarcely sleeps on those days, that she may not lose any of 

 these holy assemblies. But what deprives me of all patience 

 is this, that in the midst of these rambles, and not satisfied 

 with them, she never absents herself from a public execution. 

 She knows to a minute when a capital punishment is to be in- 

 fli6led on one ; when another is to be whipped ; and on these 

 mornings she rises early, makes a hasty breakfast, and we set 

 out for the square. I have not yet done. When one of the 

 lottery clerks passes by the house, during the few hours she is 

 within doors, she calls him in, and after a long chit-chat about 

 the chances past, present, and to come, stakes on four num-, 

 bers at the least, which, with as many smaller adventures, 

 amount to eight piastres per month: — " pay tliem, my soul,'" she 

 repeats, addressing herself to me; " / have not any loose cash 

 about meT' One day, to my great misfortune, she had a hit ; 

 but such was the concourse of female visitants and their at- 

 tendants, to partake of the treat, and so many the presents 

 distributed on the occasion, that I may say proverbially, the 

 tart cost me a loaf, or, in other words, I was obliged to make 

 considerable disbursements, the hundred and twenty -five 

 piastres gained by our fortunate adventure not sufficing to de- 

 fray the expences. These things torment me not a little ; but 

 who is capable of resisting a lady ? 



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