count's express orders, they were treated with all the consideration
due to himself. Grindot, who stayed at the steward's house, showed
such respect for the great artist that neither the steward nor his
wife had attempted to put themselves on familiar terms with him.
Moreover, the noblest and richest people in the surrounding country
had vied with each other in paying attention to Schinner and his wife.
So, very well pleased to have, as it were, a little revenge of her
own, Madame Moreau was determined to cry up the artist she was now
expecting, and to present him to her social circle as equal in talent
to the great Schinner.

Though for two days past Moreau's pretty wife had arrayed herself
coquettishly, the prettiest of her toilets had been reserved for this
very Saturday, when, as she felt no doubt, the artist would arrive for
dinner. A pink gown in very narrow stripes, a pink belt with a richly
chased gold buckle, a velvet ribbon and cross at her throat, and
velvet bracelets on her bare arms (Madame de Serizy had handsome arms
and showed them much), together with bronze kid shoes and thread
stockings, gave Madame Moreau all the appearance of an elegant
Parisian. She wore, also, a superb bonnet of Leghorn straw, trimmed
with a bunch of moss roses from Nattier's, beneath the spreading sides
of which rippled the curls of her beautiful blond hair.

After ordering a very choice dinner and reviewing the condition of her
rooms, she walked about the grounds, so as to be seen standing near a
flower-bed in the court-yard of the chateau, like the mistress of the
house, on the arrival of the coach from Paris. She held above her head
a charming rose-colored parasol lined with white silk and fringed.
Seeing that Pierrotin merely left Mistigris's queer packages with the
concierge, having, apparently, brought no passengers, Estelle retired