Mademoiselle Marguerite was doing her best to aid the maid, who
was greatly surprised to find this handsome, queenly young lady so
obliging, when Evariste, the same who had received warning an hour
before, made his appearance, and announced in an insolent tone
that "Madame la Comtesse was served."
For Madame de Fondege exacted this title. She had improvised it,
as her husband had improvised his title of General, and without
much more difficulty. By a search in the family archives she had
discovered--so she declared to her intimate friends--that she was
the descendant of a noble family, and that one of her ancestors
had held a most important position at the court of Francis I. or
of Louis XII. Indeed, she sometimes confounded them. However,
people who had not known her father, the wood merchant, saw
nothing impossible in the statements.
Evariste was dressed as a butler should be dressed when he
announces dinner to a person of rank. In the daytime when he
discharged the duties of footman, he was gorgeous in gold lace;
but in the evening, he arrayed himself in severe black, such as is
appropriate to the butler of an aristocratic household.
Immediately after his announcement everybody repaired to the
sumptuous dining-room which, with its huge side-boards, loaded
with silver and rare china, looked not unlike a museum. Such was
the display, indeed, that when Mademoiselle Marguerite took a seat
at the table, between the General and his wife, and opposite
Madame Leon, she asked herself if she had not been the victim of
that dangerous optical delusion known as prejudice.
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