d up," said Sylvie, "and that's the show
of the house."

The Rogrons had counted on surprising their guests. It was the first
time any one had been admitted to the now celebrated house, and the
company assembled at Madame Tiphaine's was eagerly awaiting her opinion
of the marvels of the "Rogron palace."

"Well!" cried little Madame Martener, "you've seen the Louvre; tell us
all about it."

"All? Well, it would be like the dinner,--not much."

"But do describe it."

"Well, to begin with, that front door, the gilded grating of which we
have all admired," said Madame Tiphaine, "opens upon a long corridor
which divides the house unequally; on the right side there is one
window, on the other, two. At the garden end, the corridor opens with
a glass door upon a portico with steps to the lawn, where there's a
sun dial and a plaster statue of Spartacus, painted to imitate bronze.
Behind the kitchen, the builder has put the staircase, and a sort of
larder which we are spared the sight of. The staircase, painted to
imitate black marble with yellow veins, turns upon itself like those
you see in cafes leading from the ground-floor to the entresol. The
balustrade, of walnut with brass ornaments and dangerously slight, was
pointed out to us as one of the seven wonders of the world. The
cellar stairs run under it. On the other side of the corridor is the
dining-room, which communicates by folding-doors with a salon of equal
size, the windows of which look on the garden."

"Dear me, is there no ante-chamber?" asked Madame Auffray.

"The corridor, full of draughts, answers for an ante-chamber," replied
Madame Tiphaine. "Our friends have had, they assured us, the eminently
national, liberal, constitutional, and patriotic feeling to use none but
French woods in the house; so the floor in the dining-room is
chestnut, the sideboards, tables, and chairs, of the same. White calico
window-curtains, with red borders, are held back by vulgar red straps;
these magnificent draperies run on wooden curtain rods ending in brass
lion's-paws. Above one of the sideboards hangs a dial suspended by a
sort of napkin in gilded bronze,--an idea that seemed to please the
Rogrons hugely. They tried to make me admire the invention; all I could
manage to say was that if it was ever proper to wrap a napkin round a
dial it was certainly in a dining-room. On the sideboard were two
huge lamps like those on the counter of a restaurant. Above the other
sideboa