Volume VIII Part 34 (1/2)
”Will you be kind enough, dear Monsieur, to cut this cake?”
He displayed the utloves, flattered at such an honor being conferred on hireatest pleasure”
Soallery, in the frariculturists, faces which expressed utter a at hi without any hesitation, they quickly came forward
An old poet jocosely slapped the neophyte on the shoulder
”Bravo, young azed at him with curiosity Even the husband appeared to be surprised As for the young man, he was astonished at the consideration which they suddenly seemed to shoards him; above all, he failed to comprehend the marked attentions, the ratitude which the mistress of the house bestowed on him
It appears, however, that he eventually found out
At what moment, in what place, was the revelation ain presented himself at the reception, he had a preoccupied air, allance of uneasiness
The bell rang for tea The man-servant appeared Mada a look about her for her young friend; but he had fled so precipitately that no trace of hi everywhere for hiriculturists With his arentle phylloxera
”My dear Monsieur,” she said to him, ”will you be so kind as to cut this cake fordown his head, stammered out so towards his wife, said:
”My dear, youabout agriculture So get your cake cut by Baptiste”
And since that day nobody has ever cut Madame Anserre's cake
A LIVELY FRIEND
They had been constantly in each other's society for a whole winter in Paris After having lost sight of each other, as generally happens in such cases, after leaving college, the two friendsyears after, already old and white-haired, the one a bachelor, the other married
M de Meroul lived six months in Paris and sixentleman in the district, he had lived a peaceful, happy life with the indolence of ato do With a calm temperament and a sedate mind, without any intellectual audacity or tendency towards revolutionary independence of thought, he passed his ti theevery moment to his wife, who raised her eyes to Heaven, and soetic assent:
”Under what a governreat God!”
Madame de Meroul mentally resembled her husband, just as if they had been brother and sister She knew by tradition that one ought, first of all, to reverence the Pope and the King!
And she loved them and respected the them, with a poetic exaltation, with a hereditary devotion, with all the sensibility of a well-born woman She was kindly in every fold of her soul She had no child, and was incessantly regretting it
When M de Meroul came across his old school fellow Joseph Mouradour at a ball, he experienced froht, for they had been very fond of one another in their youth
After exclae in their bodies and their faces, they had asked one another a number of questions as to their respective careers
Joseph Mouradour, a native of the South of France, had becohborhood Frank in his manners, he spoke briskly and without any circuhts with sheer indifference to prudential considerations He was a Republican, of that race of good-natured Republicans who make their own ease the law of their existence, and who carry freedoe of brutality
He called at his friend's address in Paris, and was immediately a favorite, on account of his easy cordiality, in spite of his advanced opinions Mada man!”