The gleeful admiration of the author who exposes how someone else was fooled is usually reserved for the professional – the gangster or the confidence woman.  The author of the "sketch" of Paris soon after the Revolution is delighted with the stratagem employed by a lady "of genteel appearance and engaging address" to make off with a white lace veil worth 80 louis.  The story displayed here certainly is funny – and naughty as well, which adds to both author's and reader's delight.