people was so difficult, so fatiguing, and so complicated a matter. Perhaps we ought to have remained simple boors."
And Madame growled:
"Oh! for that matter, I see clearly that nothing will change you. You scarcely do honor to a woman."
As they thought me pretty, and very elegant to look at, my masters had allotted to me also an important role in this comedy. First I was to preside over the cloak-room, and then to aid, or rather superintend, the four butlers, four tall lascars, with immense side-whiskers, selected from several employment-bureaus to serve this extraordinary dinner.
At first all went well. Nevertheless, there was a moment of alarm. At quarter before nine the Countess Fergus had not yet arrived. Suppose she had changed her mind, and resolved at the last moment not to come? What a humiliation! What a disaster! The Charrigauds were in a state of consternation. Joseph Brigard reassured them. It was the day when the countess had to preside over her admirable "Society for the Collection of Cigar-Stumps for the Army and Navy." The sessions sometimes did not end till very late.
"What a charming woman! " said Mme. Charrigaud, ecstatically, as if this eulogy had the magic power to hasten the coming of "this dirty
