but excused from
attendance on account of his deafness, had a handsome head, chilled by
age, but with enough gray hair still to be marked in a circle by the
pressure of his hat. He was short, square, and shrunken, but carried his
hale old age with a free-and-easy air; and as he was full of excessive
activity, which had now no purpose, he divided his time between reading
and taking exercise. In a drawing-room he devoted his attention to
waiting on the wishes of the ladies.

"You are very merry here," said he, seeing that the Baron shed a spirit
of animation on the little family gathering. "And yet Hortense is
not married," he added, noticing a trace of melancholy on his
sister-in-law's countenance.

"That will come all in good time," Lisbeth shouted in his ear in a
formidable voice.

"So there you are, you wretched seedling that could never blossom," said
he, laughing.

The hero of Forzheim rather liked Cousin Betty, for there were certain
points of resemblance between them. A man of the ranks, without any
education, his courage had been the sole mainspring of his military
promotion, and sound sense had taken the place of brilliancy. Of the
highest honor and clean-handed, he was ending a noble life in full
contentment in the centre of his family, which claimed all his
affections, and without a suspicion of his brother's still undiscovered
misconduct. No one enjoyed more than he the pleasing sight of this
family party, where there never was the smallest disagreement, for the
brothers and sisters were all equally attached, Celestine having been at
once accepted as one of the family. But the worthy little Count wondered
now and then why Monsieur Crevel never joined the party. "Papa is in
the country," Celestine shouted, and it was explained to him that the
ex-perfumer was away from home.

This perfect union of all her family made Madame Hulot say to herself,
"This, after all, is the best kind of happiness, and who can deprive us
of it?"

The General, on seeing his favorite Adeline the object of her husband's
attentions, laughed so much about it that the Baron, fearing to seem
ridiculous, transferred his gallantries to his daughter-in-law, who
at these family dinners was always the object of his flattery and kind
care, for he hoped to win Crevel back through her, and make him forego
his resentment.

Any one seeing this domestic scene would have found it hard to believe
that the father was at his wits' end, the mot