Never had
he seen in one collection such a variety of steel and silver
instruments, knives, pincers, scissors, and files. "One might
think oneself in a chiropodist's, or a dentist's establishment,"
remarked Chupin to the servant. "Does your master use all these
every day?"
"Certainly, or rather twice a day--morning and evening--at his
toilette."
Chupin expressed his feelings with a grimace and an exclamation of
mocking wonder. "Ah, well! he must have a clean skin," he said.
His listeners laughed heartily; and the concierge, after
exchanging a significant glance with the valet, said sotto voce,
"Zounds! it's his business to be a handsome fellow!" The mystery
was solved.
While Chupin changed the contents of the jardinieres, and remained
upstairs in the intervals between the nine or ten journeys he made
to the porte-cochere for more flowers, he listened attentively to
the conversation between the concierge and the valet, and heard
snatches of sentences that enlightened him wonderfully. Moreover,
whenever a question arose as to placing a plant in one place
rather than another, the valet stated as a conclusive argument
that the baroness liked it in such or such a place, or that she
would be better pleased with this or that arrangement, or that he
must comply with the instructions she had given him. Chupin was
therefore obliged to conclude that the flowers had been sent here
by a baroness who possessed certain rights in the establishment.
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