see me, you look upon
me as if I were a dog running amidst an interesting game of ninepins;
and yet, for all I see, I am just as agreeable as other people."

"And it would have been so easy for you to have continued agreeable--in
the East," added Madame d'Harville, slightly smiling.

"Stop abroad, you mean, I suppose; yes, I dare say. I tell you I could
not, and I would not; and it is not quite what I like, to hear you say
so!" exclaimed M. de Lucenay, uncrossing his legs, and beating the crown
of his hat after the fashion of a tambourine.

"Well, for heaven's sake, my lord, be still, and do not call out so very
loudly," said Madame d'Harville, angrily, "or really you will compel me
to change my place."

"Change your place! Ah, to be sure! You want to take my arm, and walk
about the gallery a little; come along then, I'm ready."

"Walk with you! Certainly not! And pray let me beg of you not to meddle
with that bouquet--and have the goodness not to touch the fan either;
you will only break it, as you always do."

"Oh, bless you! talking of breaking fans, I am unlucky. Did my wife ever
show you a magnificent Chinese fan, given to her by Madame de Vaudemont?
Well, I broke that!" And, having delivered himself of these comforting
words, M. de Lucenay again threw himself back on the divan he had been
lounging on, but, with his accustomed gaucherie, contrived to pitch
himself over the back of it, on to the ground, grasping in his hand a
quantity of the floating wreaths of climbing plants which depended from
the boughs of the trees under which the party was sitting, and which he
had been, for some time, amusing himself with essaying to catch, as,
moved by the light breeze admitted into the place, they undulated
gracefully over his head. The suddenness of his fall brought down, not
only those he held, but the parent stems belonging to them; and poor De
Lucenay was so covered by the mass of foliage thus unexpectedly
obtained, that, ere he could thoroughly disengage himself from their
circling tendrils, he presented the appearance of some monarch of
May-day crowned with his leafy diadem. So whimsical an appearance as he
presented drew down roars of deafening, stunning laughter; much to the
annoyance of Madame d'Harville, who would quickly have got out of the
vicinity of so awkward and unpleasant a person had she not perceived M.
Charles Robert (the commandant of Madame Pipelet's accounts) advancing
from the other end of the