ed to a duke and a peer of France; then he spent three
hundred thousand francs over furnishing it. That's a good deal, you
know, three hundred thousand francs! But every room in the house is a
perfect wonder. 'Good,' said I to myself when I saw this magnificence;
'it is just like it used to be in the time of my lord, his late
grandfather; and the young marquis is going to entertain all Paris
and the Court!' Nothing of the kind! My lord refused to see any one
whatever. 'Tis a funny life that he leads, M. Porriquet, you understand.
An _inconciliable_ life. He rises every day at the same time. I am the
only person, you see, that may enter his room. I open all the shutters
at seven o'clock, summer or winter. It is all arranged very oddly. As I
come in I say to him:

"'You must get up and dress, my Lord Marquis.'

"Then he rises and dresses himself. I have to give him his
dressing-gown, and it is always after the same pattern, and of the same
material. I am obliged to replace it when it can be used no longer,
simply to save him the trouble of asking for a new one. A queer fancy!
As a matter of fact, he has a thousand francs to spend every day, and
he does as he pleases, the dear child. And besides, I am so fond of him
that if he gave me a box on the ear on one side, I should hold out the
other to him! The most difficult things he will tell me to do, and yet I
do them, you know! He gives me a lot of trifles to attend to, that I
am well set to work! He reads the newspapers, doesn't he? Well, my
instructions are to put them always in the same place, on the same
table. I always go at the same hour and shave him myself; and don't I
tremble! The cook would forfeit the annuity of a thousand crowns that
he is to come into after my lord's death, if breakfast is not served
_inconciliably_ at ten o'clock precisely. The menus are drawn up for the
whole year round, day after day. My Lord the Marquis has not a thing
to wish for. He has strawberries whenever there are any, and he has the
earliest mackerel to be had in Paris. The programme is printed every
morning. He knows his dinner by rote. In the next place, he dresses
himself at the same hour, in the same clothes, the same linen, that
I always put on the same chair, you understand? I have to see that he
always has the same cloth; and if it should happen that his coat came
to grief (a mere supposition), I should have to replace it by another
without saying a word about it to him. If it