ing Lent, feel
constrained to decline that of Mademoiselle de Vermont."

The dinner was only the more gay and cordial.

Valentine's household was conducted on a footing more elegant than
sumptuous.

The livery was simple, but the appearance of her people was
irreproachable. The butler and the house servants wore the ordinary
dress-coat and trousers; the powdered footmen wore short brown coats,
ornamented, after the English fashion, with metal buttons and a false
waistcoat; the breeches were of black velveteen, held above the knee by
a band of gold braid, with embroidered ends, which fell over black silk
stockings. At the end of the ante-chamber where this numerous personnel
was grouped, opened a long gallery, ornamented with old tapestries
representing mythological subjects in lively and well-preserved
coloring. This room, which was intended to serve as a ballroom at need,
was next to two large drawing-rooms. The walls of one were covered with
a rich material, on which hung costly paintings; the furniture and the
ceiling of the other were of oak, finely carved, relieved with touches
of gold in light and artistic design.

Everywhere was revealed an evident desire to avoid an effect of
heaviness and ostentation, and this was especially noticeable in the
dining-room, where the pure tone of the panels and the moulding
doubled the intensity of the light thrown upon them. Upon the table
the illumination of the apartment was aided by two large candelabra of
beautifully chiselled silver, filled with candles, the light of which
filtered through a forest of diaphanous little white shades.

The square table was a veritable parterre of flowers, and was laid for
twelve guests, three on each side.

The young mistress of the house was seated on one side, between the Duc
de Montgeron and the Marquis de Prerolles. Facing her sat the
Duchesse de Montgeron, between General Lenaieff and the Chevalier de
Sainte-Foy.--Laterally, on one hand appeared Madame de Lisieux, between
M. de Nointel and the painter Edmond Delorme; on the other, Madame de
Nointel, between M. de Lisieux and the Baron de Samoreau.

Never, during the six weeks that Valentine had had friendly relations
with the Duchess, had she appeared so self-possessed, or among
surroundings so well fitted to display her attractions of mind and of
person. She was a little on the defensive on finding herself in this new
and unexpected society, but she felt, this evening, that she