a tent, with ropes of blue silk on a gray background. The classic
divan was there, of course, with its pillows and footstools. The
plant-stands, taken care of by the head-gardener of Presles, rejoiced
the eye with their pyramids of bloom. The dining-room and billiard-room
were furnished in mahogany.

Around the house the steward's wife had laid out a beautiful garden,
carefully cultivated, which opened into the great park. Groups of
choice parks hid the offices and stables. To improve the entrance by
which visitors came to see her, she had substituted a handsome iron
gateway for the shabby railing, which she discarded.

The dependence in which the situation of their dwelling placed the
Moreaus, was thus adroitly concealed, and they seemed all the more
like rich and independent persons taking care of the property of a
friend, because neither the count nor the countess ever came to
Presles to take down their pretensions. Moreover, the perquisites
granted by Monsieur de Serizy allowed them to live in the midst of
that abundance which is the luxury of country life. Milk, eggs,
poultry, game, fruits, flowers, forage, vegetables, wood, the steward
and his wife used in profusion, buying absolutely nothing but
butcher's-meat, wines, and the colonial supplies required by their
life of luxury. The poultry-maid baked their bread; and of late years
Moreau had paid his butcher with pigs from the farm, after reserving
those he needed for his own use.

On one occasion, the countess, always kind and good to her former
maid, gave her, as a souvenir perhaps, a little travelling-carriage,
the fashion of which was out of date. Moreau had it repainted, and now
drove his wife about the country with two good horses which belonged