his
clients round there and makes them pay doubly dear, since people don't
bargain when they think they are dealing with a marquis, an amateur.
As for the toilettes of the marquise, the milliner and the dressmaker
provide her with them each season gratis, get her to wear the new
fashions, a little ridiculous sometimes but which society subsequently
adopts because Madame is still a very handsome woman and reputed for
her elegance; she is what is called a _launcher_. Finally, the servants!
Makeshifts like the rest, changed each week at the pleasure of the
registry office which sends them there to do a period of probation by
way of preliminary to a serious engagement. If you have neither sureties
nor certificates, if you have just come out of prison or anything of
that kind, Glanand, the famous agent of the Rue de la Paix, sends you
off to the Boulevard Haussmann. You remain in service there for a
week or two, just the time necessary to buy a good reference from the
marquis, who, of course, it is understood, pays you nothing and barely
boards you; for in that house the kitchen-ranges are cold most of the
time, Monsieur and Madame dining out nearly every evening or going to
balls, where a supper is included in the entertainment. It is positive
fact that there are people in Paris who take the sideboard seriously and
make the first meal of their day after midnight. The Bois l'Herys, in
consequence, are well-informed with regard to the houses that provide
refreshments. They will tell you that you get a very good supper at the
Austrian Embassy, that the Spanish Embassy rather neglects the wines,
and that it is at the Foreign Office again that you find the best
_chaud-froid de volailles_. And that is the life of this curious
household. Nothing that they possess is really theirs; everything is
tacked on, loosely fastened with pins. A gust of wind and the whole
thing blows away. But at least they are certain of losing nothing. It is
this assurance which gives to the marquis that air of raillery worthy of
a Father Tranquille which he has when he looks at you with both hands in
his pockets, as much as to say: "Ah, well, and what then? What can they
do to me?"

And the little groom, in the attitude which I have just mentioned, with
his head like that of a prematurely old and vicious child, imitated his
master so well that I could fancy I saw himself as he looks at our board
meetings, standing in front of the governor and overwhelming