“Thank you, madame; calico irritates my skin; I only wear linen.”
Berthe, however, found her so polite, that she became more easy. She made herself very familiar with her, told her she was going to sleep out, and even asked her to leave a lamp alight, in case she required it. The door leading on to the grand staircase could be bolted, and she would go out by way of the kitchen, the key of which she would take with her. The servant received these instructions as coolly as if it had been a question of cooking a piece of beef for the morrow’s dinner.
By a refinement of discretion, as his mistress was to dine with her parents that evening, Octave accepted an invitation to the Campardons’. He counted on staying there till ten o’clock, and then going and shutting himself up in his room, and waiting for half-past twelve with as much patience as possible.
The dinner at the Campardons’ was quite patriarchal. The architect, seated between his wife and her cousin, lingered over the dishes—regular family dishes—abundant and wholesome, as he described them.
“Eat away,” cried the architect to Octave; “you may be eaten yourself some day.”
Madame Campardon, bending toward the young man’s ear, was once more congratulating herself on the happiness which the cousin had brought the household; an economy of quite cent. per cent., the servants made to be respectful; Angèle looked after properly, and receiving good examples.
“In short,” murmured she, “Achille continues to be as happy as a fish in water, and, as for me, I have absolutely nothing whatever left to do, absolutely nothing. Listen! she even washes me now. I can live without moving either arms or legs; she has taken all the cares of the household on her own shoulders.”
Then the architect related how “he had settled those jokers of the Ministry of Public Instruction.”
“Just fancy, my dear fellow, they made no end of a fuss about the work I’ve done at Evreux, You see, I wished, above all, to please the bishop. Only, the range for the new kitchens and the heating apparatus have come to more than twenty thousand francs. No credit was voted for them, and it is not easy to get twenty thousand francs out of the small sum allowed for repairs.”
They laughed all round the table, without the least respect for the Ministry, of which they spoke with disdain, their mouths full of rice. Rose declared that it was best to be on the side of religion. Ever since the works at Saint-Roch, Achille was overwhelmed with orders; the greatest families would employ no one else; it was impossible for him to attend to them all; he would have to work all night as well as all day. God wished them well, most decidedly, and the family returned thanks to Him, both night and morning.