re informing
his parents that he had found a girl answering so well to his likings
in every way that there could not exist any other in all the world so
perfectly suited to him.

The old people, at this observation, immediately assumed a circumspect
air, and wanted explanations. Besides he had concealed nothing from
them except the color of her skin.

She was a servant, without much means, but strong, thrifty, clean,
well-conducted, and sensible. All these things were better than money
would be in the hands of a bad housewife. Moreover, she had a few
sous, left her by a woman who had reared her, a good number of sous,
almost a little dowry, fifteen hundred francs in the savings' bank.
The old people, overcome by his talk, and relying, too, on their own
judgment, were gradually giving way, when he came to the delicate
point. Laughing in rather a constrained fashion, he said:

"There is only one thing you may not like. She is not a white slip."

They did not understand, and he had to explain at some length and very
cautiously, to avoid shocking them, that she belonged to the dusky
race of which they had only seen samples amongst figures exhibited at
Epinal. Then, they became restless, perplexed, alarmed, as if he had
proposed a union with the Devil.

The mother said. "Black? How much of her is black? Is the whole of
her?"

He replied, "Certainly. Everywhere, just as you are white everywhere."

The father interposed, "Black? Is it as black as the pot?"

The son answered "Perhaps a little less than that. She is black, but
not disgustingly black. The Cure's cassock is black; but it is not
uglier than a surplice, which is white."

The father said, "Are there more black people besides her in her
country?"

And the son, with an air of conviction, exclaimed, "Certainly!"

But the old man shook his head.

"This must be disagreeable?"

And the son:

"It isn't more disagreeable than anything else, seeing that you get
used to it in no time."

The mother asked:

"It doesn't soil linen more than other skins, this black skin?"

"Not more than your own, as it is her proper color."

Then after many other questions, it was agreed that the parents should
see this girl before coming to any decision and that the young
fellow, whose period of services was coming to an end in the course of
a month, should bring her to the house in order that they might
examine her, and decide by talking the matter over whether or not sh