is fine, I go in and say to
my master:

"'You ought to go out, sir.'

"He says Yes, or No. If he has a notion that he will go out, he doesn't
wait for his horses; they are always ready harnessed; the coachman stops
there _inconciliably_, whip in hand, just as you see him out there.
In the evening, after dinner, my master goes one day to the Opera, the
other to the Ital----no, he hasn't yet gone to the Italiens, though,
for I could not find a box for him until yesterday. Then he comes in at
eleven o'clock precisely, to go to bed. At any time in the day when
he has nothing to do, he reads--he is always reading, you see--it is a
notion he has. My instructions are to read the _Journal de la Librairie_
before he sees it, and to buy new books, so that he finds them on his
chimney-piece on the very day that they are published. I have orders to
go into his room every hour or so, to look after the fire and everything
else, and to see that he wants nothing. He gave me a little book, sir,
to learn off by heart, with all my duties written in it--a regular
catechism! In summer I have to keep a cool and even temperature with
blocks of ice and at all seasons to put fresh flowers all about. He is
rich! He has a thousand francs to spend every day; he can indulge his
fancies! And he hadn't even necessaries for so long, poor child! He
doesn't annoy anybody; he is as good as gold; he never opens his mouth,
for instance; the house and garden are absolutely silent. In short, my
master has not a single wish left; everything comes in the twinkling
of an eye, if he raises his hand, and _instanter_. Quite right, too.
If servants are not looked after, everything falls into confusion. You
would never believe the lengths he goes about things. His rooms are
all--what do you call it?--er--er--_en suite_. Very well; just suppose,
now, that he opens his room door or the door of his study; presto! all
the other doors fly open of themselves by a patent contrivance; and then
he can go from one end of the house to the other and not find a single
door shut; which is all very nice and pleasant and convenient for us
great folk! But, on my word, it cost us a lot of money! And, after all,
M. Porriquet, he said to me at last:

"'Jonathan, you will look after me as if I were a baby in long clothes,'
Yes, sir, 'long clothes!' those were his very words. 'You will think of
all my requirements for me.' I am the master, so to speak, and he is
the servant, you unde