an standards with Greek foliage! Above the clock is that
inevitable good-natured lion which looks at you with a simper, the
lion of ornamentation, with a big ball under his feet, symbol of the
decorative lion, who passes his life holding a black ball,--exactly like
a deputy of the Left. Perhaps it is meant as a constitutional myth. The
face of the clock is curious. The glass over the chimney is framed in
that new fashion of applied mouldings which is so trumpery and vulgar.
From the ceiling hangs a chandelier carefully wrapped in green muslin,
and rightly too, for it is in the worst taste, the sharpest tint of
bronze with hideous ornaments. The walls are covered with a red flock
paper to imitate velvet enclosed in panels, each panel decorated with a
chromo-lithograph in one of those frames festooned with stucco flowers
to represent wood-carving. The furniture, in cashmere and elm-wood,
consists, with classic uniformity, of two sofas, two easy-chairs, two
armchairs, and six common chairs. A vase in alabaster, called a la
Medicis, kept under glass stands on a table between the windows; before
the windows, which are draped with magnificent red silk curtains and
lace curtains under them, are card-tables. The carpet is Aubusson,
and you may be sure the Rogrons did not fail to lay hands on that most
vulgar of patterns, large flowers on a red ground. The room looks as
if no one ever lived there; there are no books, no engravings, none
of those little knick-knacks we all have lying about," added Madame
Tiphaine, glancing at her own table covered with fashionable trifles,
albums, and little presents given to her by friends; "and there are no
flowers,--it is all cold and barren, like Mademoiselle Sylvie herself.
Buffon says the style is the man, and certainly salons have styles of
their own."

From this sketch everybody can see the sort of house the brother and
sister lived in, though they can never imagine the absurdities into
which a clever builder dragged the ignorant pair,--new inventions,
fantastic ornaments, a system for preventing smoky chimneys, another
for preventing damp walls; painted marquetry panels on the staircase,
colored glass, superfine locks,--in short, all those vulgarities which
make a house expensive and gratify the bourgeois taste.

No one chose to visit the Rogrons, whose social plans thus came to
nothing. Their invitations were refused under various excuses,--the
evenings were already engaged to Madame G