Chapter 25
The poet's reflections during the night were thoroughly matter of fact. He sincerely saw nothing worse in life than the situation of a married man without money. Still trembling at the danger he had been led into by his vanity, his desire to get the better of the duke, and his belief in the Mignon millions, he began to ask himself what the duchess must be thinking of his stay in Havre, aggravated by the fact that he had not written to her for fourteen days, whereas in Paris they exchanged four or five letters a week. "And that poor woman is working hard to get me appointed commander of the Legion and ambassador to the Court of Baden!" he cried. Thereupon, with that promptitude of decision which results-in poets as well as in speculators-from a lively intuition of the future, he sat dow
- Writer
