f time?

"We live in obscurity; we have five or six friends of either sex whom we
like, and such is the brilliant style of life which your letter gilded
with all the social splendors.

"From time to time I am caught in a squall, or am the butt of some
malicious tongue. Thus, yesterday, at the opera, I heard one of our most
ill-natured wits, Leon de Lora, say to one of our most famous critics,
'It takes Chodoreille to discover the Caroline poplar on the banks of
the Rhone!' They had heard my husband call me by my Christian name. At
Viviers I was considered handsome. I am tall, well made, and fat enough
to satisfy Adolphe! In this way I learn that the beauty of women from
the country is, at Paris, precisely like the wit of country gentleman.

"In short, I am absolutely nobody, if that is what you wish to know: but
if you desire to learn how far my philosophy goes, understand that I am
really happy in having found an ordinary man in my pretended great one.

"Farewell, dear Claire! It is still I, you see, who, in spite of my
delusions and the petty troubles of my life, am the most favorably
situated: for Adolphe is young, and a charming fellow.

"CAROLINE HEURTAUT."

Claire's reply contained, among other passages, the following: "I hope
that the indescribable happiness which you enjoy, will continue, thanks
to your philosophy." Claire, as any intimate female friend would have
done, consoled herself for her president by insinuations respecting
Adolphe's prospects and future conduct.

II. ANOTHER GLANCE AT CHODOREILLE.

(Letter discovered one day in a casket, while she was making me wait a
long time and trying to get rid of a hanger-on who could not be made
to understand hidden meanings. I caught cold--but I got hold of this
letter.)

This fatuous note was found on a paper which the notary's clerks had
thought of no importance in the inventory of the estate of M. Ferdinand
de Bourgarel, who was mourned of late by politics, arts and amours,
and in whom is ended the great Provencal house of Borgarelli; for as is
generally known the name Bourgarel is a corruption of Borgarelli just as
the French Girardin is the Florentine Gherardini.

An intelligent reader will find little difficulty in placing this letter
in its proper epoch in the lives of Adolphe and Caroline.

"My dear Friend:

"I thought myself lucky indeed to marry an artist as superior in his
talent as in his personal attributes, equally great in sou