es or extolling the composer.

M. Alexandre de Brebian performed heroic exploits in sepia; he
disfigured the walls of his friends' rooms with a swarm of crude
productions, and spoiled all the albums in the department. M. Alexandre
de Brebian and M. de Bartas came together, each with his friend's wife
on his arm, a cross-cornered arrangement which gossip declared to
be carried out to the fullest extent. As for the two women, Mesdames
Charlotte de Brebian and Josephine de Bartas, or Lolotte and Fifine,
as they were called, both took an equal interest in a scarf, or the
trimming of a dress, or the reconciliation of several irreconcilable
colors; both were eaten up with a desire to look like Parisiennes, and
neglected their homes, where everything went wrong. But if they dressed
like dolls in tightly-fitting gowns of home manufacture, and exhibited
outrageous combinations of crude colors upon their persons, their
husbands availed themselves of the artist's privilege and dressed as
they pleased, and curious it was to see the provincial dowdiness of the
pair. In their threadbare clothes they looked like the supernumeraries
that represent rank and fashion at stage weddings in third-rate
theatres.

One of the queerest figures in the rooms was M. le Comte de Senonches,
known by the aristocratic name of Jacques, a mighty hunter, lean and
sunburned, a haughty gentleman, about as amiable as a wild boar, as
suspicious as a Venetian, and jealous as a Moor, who lived on terms of
the friendliest and most perfect intimacy with M. du Hautoy, otherwise
Francis, the friend of the house.

Madame de Senonches (Zephirine) was a tall, fine-looking woman, though
her complexion was spoiled already by pimples due to liver complaint,
on which grounds she was said to be exacting. With a slender figure and
delicate proportions, she could afford to indulge in languid manners,
savoring somewhat of affectation, but revealing passion and the
consciousness that every least caprice will be gratified by love.

Francis, the house friend, was rather distinguished-looking. He had
given up his consulship in Valence, and sacrificed his diplomatic
prospects to live near Zephirine (also known as Zizine) in Angouleme.
He had taken the household in charge, he superintended the children's
education, taught them foreign languages, and looked after the fortunes
of M. and Mme. de Senonches with the most complete devotion. Noble
Angouleme, administrative Angouleme,