"A la bonne heure! Did I not tell you that we had nothing like it in our
neighbourhood--or in any other, for all I know? Did I in the least
exaggerate?"
We assured Madame that she had undercoloured her picture. The reality
surpassed her ideal description.
"Ah!" cried Madame sentimentally, "our beau-ideals--when do we ever see
them? But personally I cannot complain. I have a husband in ten
thousand, and that, after all, should be a woman's beau-ideal, for it is
her vocation. Oh!" with a little scream, pretending not to have heard
her husband come up quietly behind her; "you did not hear me paying you
compliments behind your back, Eugene? I assure you I meant the very
opposite of what I said."
"If you are perverse, I shall not take you to the Regatta next Sunday,"
threatened Monsieur, in deep tones that very thinly veiled the affection
lurking behind them.
"The Regatta!" cried Madame. "Where should I find the time to go
jaunting off to the Regatta? We have a wedding order to execute for that
morning--my hands will be more than full. Figurez vous," turning to us,
"a silly old widow is marrying quite a young man. She is rich, of
course; and he has nothing, equally of course. And what does she expect
will be the end of it? I cannot imagine what these people do with their
common sense and their experience of life. But I always say we gain
experience for the benefit of our friends: it enables us to give
excellent advice to others, but we never think of applying it to
ourselves.
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