of every description, of his household? What
of the mode of service in which etiquette was replaced by order;
stiff formality by personal, unrestrained comfort; the happiness and
contentment of the guest became the supreme law of all who obeyed
the host? The perfect swarm of busily engaged persons moving about
noiselessly; the multitude of guests,--who were, however, even
less numerous than the servants who waited on them,--the myriad of
exquisitely prepared dishes, of gold and silver vases; the floods of
dazzling light, the masses of unknown flowers of which the hot-houses
had been despoiled, redundant with luxuriance of unequaled scent and
beauty; the perfect harmony of the surroundings, which, indeed, was
no more than the prelude of the promised _fete_, charmed all who were
there; and they testified their admiration over and over again, not
by voice or gesture, but by deep silence and rapt attention, those
two languages of the courtier which acknowledge the hand of no master
powerful enough to restrain them.

As for the king, his eyes filled with tears; he dared not look at the
queen. Anne of Austria, whose pride was superior to that of any creature
breathing, overwhelmed her host by the contempt with which she treated
everything handed to her. The young queen, kind-hearted by nature and
curious by disposition, praised Fouquet, ate with an exceedingly good
appetite, and asked the names of the strange fruits as they were placed
upon the table. Fouquet replied that he was not aware of their names.
The fruits came from his own stores; he had often cultivated them
himself, having an intimate acquaintance with the cultivation of exotic
fruits and plants. The king felt and appreciated the delicacy of the
replies, but was only the more humiliated; he thought the queen a little
too familiar in her manners, and that Anne of Austria resembled Juno
a little too much, in being too proud and haughty; his chief anxiety,
however, was himself, that he might remain cold and distant in his
behavior, bordering lightly the limits of supreme disdain or simple
admiration.

But Fouquet had foreseen all this; he was, in fact, one of those men who
foresee everything. The king had expressly declared that, so long as he
remained under Fouquet's roof, he did not wish his own different repasts
to be served in accordance with the usual etiquette, and that he would,
consequently, dine with the rest of society; but by the thoughtful
attention of