s
daughter's eyes; that it was time she should make up her mind. He felt
a certain inward satisfaction at having well fulfilled his duty as a
father. And having left no stone unturned, he hoped that, among so many
hearts laid at Emilie's feet, there might be one to which her caprice
might give a preference. Incapable of repeating such an effort, and
tired, too, of his daughter's conduct, one morning, towards the end
of Lent, when the business at the Chamber did not demand his vote, he
determined to ask what her views were. While his valet was artistically
decorating his bald yellow head with the delta of powder which, with
the hanging "ailes de pigeon," completed his venerable style of
hairdressing, Emilie's father, not without some secret misgivings, told
his old servant to go and desire the haughty damsel to appear in the
presence of the head of the family.

"Joseph," he added, when his hair was dressed, "take away that towel,
draw back the curtains, put those chairs square, shake the rug, and
lay it quite straight. Dust everything.--Now, air the room a little by
opening the window."

The Count multiplied his orders, putting Joseph out of breath, and the
old servant, understanding his master's intentions, aired and tidied the
room, of course the least cared for of any in the house, and succeeded
in giving a look of harmony to the files of bills, the letter-boxes, the
books and furniture of this sanctum, where the interests of the royal
demesnes were debated over. When Joseph had reduced this chaos to some
sort of order, and brought to the front such things as might be most
pleasing to the eye, as if it were a shop front, or such as by their
color might give the effect of a kind of official poetry, he stood for a
minute in the midst of the labyrinth of papers piled in some places even
on the floor, admired his handiwork, jerked his head, and went.

The anxious sinecure-holder did not share his retainer's favorable
opinion. Before seating himself in his deep chair, whose rounded back
screened him from draughts, he looked round him doubtfully, examined
his dressing-gown with a hostile expression, shook off a few grains of
snuff, carefully wiped his nose, arranged the tongs and shovel, made the
fire, pulled up the heels of his slippers, pulled out his little
queue of hair which had lodged horizontally between the collar of
his waistcoat and that of his dressing-gown restoring it to its
perpendicular position; then he s