h a little King Charles spaniel, which presented a
surprisingly harmonious effect as it lay on the hard little sofa, rococo
in shape, that assuredly never played the part assigned to the sofa of
Crebillon.

Among their many virtues, the Ragons were noted for the possession
of old wines which had come to perfect mellowness, and for certain of
Madame Anfoux's liqueurs, which certain persons, obstinately (though it
was said hopelessly) bent on making love to Madame Ragon, had brought
her from the West Indies. Thus their little dinners were much prized.
Jeannette, the old cook, took care of the aged couple with blind
devotion: she would have stolen the fruit to make their sweetmeats.
Instead of taking her money to the savings-bank, she put it judiciously
into lotteries, hoping that some day she could bestow a good round sum
on her master and mistress. On the appointed Sundays when they received
their guests, she was, despite her years, active in the kitchen to
superintend the dishes, which she served at the table with an agility
that (to use a favorite expression of the worthy Ragon) might have given
points to Mademoiselle Contat when she played Susanne in the "Mariage de
Figaro."

The guests on this occasion were Popinot the judge, Pillerault, Anselme,
the three Birotteaus, three Matifats, and the Abbe Loraux. Madame
Matifat, whom we lately met crowned with a turban for the ball, now
wore a gown of blue velvet, with coarse cotton stockings, leather shoes,
gloves of chamois-skin with a border of green plush, and a bonnet
lined with pink, filled in with white puffs about the face. These ten
personages assembled at five o'clock. The old Ragons always requested
their guests to be punctual. When this worthy couple were invited out,
their hosts always put the dinner at the same hour, remembering that
stomachs which were sixty-five years old could not adapt themselves to
the novel hours recently adopted in the great world.

Cesarine was sure that Madame Ragon would place her beside Anselme;
for all women, be they fools or saints, know what is what in love. The
daughter of "The Queen of Roses" therefore dressed with the intention of
turning Popinot's head. Her mother--having renounced, not without pain,
the thought of marrying her to Crottat, who to her eyes played the part
of heir-apparent--assisted, with some bitter thoughts, at the toilet.
Maternal forethought lowered the modest gauzy neckerchief to show a
little of Cesarine