When Barras returned to the Luxembourg, his valet informed him that a lady was awaiting him. Barras asked the usual question: "Young or old?"
"She must be young, sir," replied the valet; "but I have not been able to see her face because of her veil."
"How is she dressed?"
"Like a woman in good society, in black satin. She looks like a widow."
"Did you bring her in?"
"I put her in the pink boudoir. If monseigneur should not care to receive her, nothing is easier than to show her out without passing through the cabinet. Will you receive her here, or will you go to the pink boudoir?"
"I will go there," said Barras.
Then, remembering that he might be about to meet a woman of rank, and that the proprieties must be observed even in the Luxembourg, he said to the valet: "Announce me."
The valet went first, opened the door of the boudoir, and said: "Citizen-director Barras."
He drew back at once to give place to him whom he had announced. Barras entered with that grand air which he had derived from the aristocratic world to which he belonged, and to which, in spite of three years of Revolution and two of Directory, he still belonged.