On the other
hand, her bed had no curtains.
The aspect of the place fittingly explained the habits and manners
of the inmates. What sinister fears must have haunted them! for
how could this extreme destitution in one part of the
establishment be reconciled with the luxury noticeable in the
other, except by the fact that a desperate struggle to keep up
appearances was constantly going on? And this constant anxiety
made out-door noise, excitement, and gayety a necessity of their
existence, and caused them to welcome anything that took them from
the home where they had barely sufficient to deceive society, and
not enough to impose upon their creditors. "And they keep three
servants," thought Mademoiselle Marguerite--"three enemies who
spend their time in ridiculing them, and torturing their vanity."
Thus, on the very first day after her arrival, she realized the
real situation of the General and his wife. They were certainly
on the verge of ruin when Mademoiselle Marguerite accepted their
hospitality. Everything went to prove this: the coachman's
insolent demand, the servants' impudence, the grocer's refusal to
furnish a single bottle of wine on credit, the milliner's
persistence, and, lastly, the new sheets on the visitors' beds.
"Yes," thought Mademoiselle Marguerite to herself, "the Fondeges
were ruined when I came here. They would never have sunk so low
if they had not been utterly destitute of resources.
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