nd! We shall never be ready."

Monsieur Letellier, who, with his arms behind his back, was gazing at
the chandelier, hastened to give the required assistance. Pauline
carried the chairs about herself. She had paid due deference to her
sister's request, and was robed in white; only her dress opened
squarely at the neck and displayed her bosom.

"At last we are ready," she exclaimed: "they can come when they like.
But what is Juliette dreaming about? She has been ever so long
dressing Lucien!"

Just at that moment Madame Deberle entered, leading the little
marquis, and everybody present began raising admiring remarks. "Oh!
what a love! What a darling he is!" His coat was of white satin
embroidered with flowers, his long waistcoat was embroidered with
gold, and his knee-breeches were of cherry-colored silk. Lace
clustered round his chin, and delicate wrists. A sword, a mere toy
with a great rose-red knot, rattled against his hip.

"Now you must do the honors," his mother said to him, as she led him
into the outer room.

For eight days past he had been repeating his lesson, and struck a
cavalier attitude with his little legs, his powdered head thrown
slightly back, and his cocked hat tucked under his left arm. As each
of his lady-guests was ushered into the room, he bowed low, offered
his arm, exchanged courteous greetings, and returned to the threshold.
Those near him laughed over his intense seriousness in which there was
a dash of effrontery. This was the style in which he received
Marguerite Tissot, a little lady five years old, dressed in a charming
milkmaid costume, with a milk-can hanging at her side; so too did he
greet the Berthier children, Blanche and Sophie, the one masquerading
as Folly, the other dressed in soubrette style; and he had even the
hardihood to tackle Valentine de Chermette, a tall young lady of some
fourteen years, whom her mother always dressed in Spanish costume, and
at her side his figure appeared so slight that she seemed to be
carrying him along. However, he was profoundly embarrassed in the
presence of the Levasseur family, which numbered five girls, who made
their appearance in a row of increasing height, the youngest being
scarcely two years old, while the eldest was ten. All five were
arrayed in Red Riding-Hood costumes, their head-dresses and gowns
being in poppy-colored satin with black velvet bands, with which their
lace aprons strikingly contrasted. At last Lucien, making up his