"Beauty, madame, is a sovereign whom all painters worship; it has
unlimited claims upon them."

"They are both charming," thought Madame Moreau. "Do you enjoy
driving? Shall I take you through the woods, after dinner, in my
carriage?"

"Oh! oh! oh!" cried Mistigris, in three ecstatic tones. "Why, Presles
will prove our terrestrial paradise."

"With an Eve, a fair, young, fascinating woman," added Bridau.

Just as Madame Moreau was bridling, and soaring to the seventh heaven,
she was recalled like a kite by a twitch at its line.

"Madame!" cried her maid-servant, bursting into the room.

"Rosalie," said her mistress, "who allowed you to come here without
being sent for?"

Rosalie paid no heed to the rebuke, but whispered in her mistress's
ear:--

"The count is at the chateau."

"Has he asked for me?" said the steward's wife.

"No, madame; but he wants his trunk and the key of his apartment."

"Then give them to him," she replied, making an impatient gesture to