my observations on the conjugal oddities with which the
drawing-room is usually full, without recalling vividly a sight which I
once enjoyed in early youth:

In 1819 I was living in a thatched cottage situated in the bosom of the
delightful valley l'Isle-Adam. My hermitage neighbored on the park of
Cassan, the sweetest of retreats, the most fascinating in aspect, the
most attractive as a place to ramble in, the most cool and refreshing
in summer, of all places created by luxury and art. This verdant
country-seat owes its origin to a farmer-general of the good old times,
a certain Bergeret, celebrated for his originality; who among other
fantastic dandyisms adopted the habit of going to the opera, with his
hair powdered in gold; he used to light up his park for his own solitary
delectation and on one occasion ordered a sumptuous entertainment there,
in which he alone took part. This rustic Sardanapalus returned from
Italy so passionately charmed with the scenery of that beautiful country
that, by a sudden freak of enthusiasm, he spent four or five millions
in order to represent in his park the scenes of which he had pictures in
his portfolio. The most charming contrasts of foliage, the rarest trees,
long valleys, and prospects the most picturesque that could be brought
from abroad, Borromean islands floating on clear eddying streams like so
many rays, which concentrate their various lustres on a single point, on
an Isola Bella, from which the enchanted eye takes in each detail at
its leisure, or on an island in the bosom of which is a little house
concealed under the drooping foliage of a century-old ash, an island
fringed with irises, rose-bushes, and flowers which appears like an
emerald richly set. Ah! one might rove a thousand leagues for such a
place! The most sickly, the most soured, the most disgusted of our men
of genius in ill health would die of satiety at the end of fifteen days,
overwhelmed with the luscious sweetness of fresh life in such a spot.

The man who was quite regardless of the Eden which he thus possessed
had neither wife nor children, but was attached to a large ape which
he kept. A graceful turret of wood, supported by a sculptured column,
served as a dwelling place for this vicious animal, who being kept
chained and rarely petted by his eccentric master, oftener at Paris
than in his country home, had gained a very bad reputation. I recollect
seeing him once in the presence of certain ladies sho