A French Story

Dachaumont, of the Paris Sport, tells a story of the Comtesse du Cayla, the last of the favorites. One day she was turning over the leaves of a magnificently illustrated edition of the Bible, while Louis XVIII. was signing some state papers. When the King had finished, he asked the fair reader what she had been doing. "I was making a new acquaintance, sir."
"With whom?" "With the Bible."
"With the Bible! Well, Comtesse, you must not stay at mere acquaintance." The Comtesse had forgotten the incident when she returned to her room a few hours afterward, and found on the table of her salon the Bible which she had so much admired in the King's cabinet. She opened it, and what was her surprise to find that each of the engravings was covered with a new bank note of 1,000 francs. There were one hundred and fifty engravings in Louis XVIII.'s Bible.
This was an original way of encouraging the reading of the Bible.