"In truth, I think it is the very handsomest; and it pains me to make myself so fine when my poor Mario——"
"Monsieur, monsieur, let me arrange everything; our Mario will be very presentable."
The marquis's "peasant" coat was white velvet and white satin, with a profusion of silver lace and magnificent ruffles. White was then the color of the peasants, who dressed in white linen or coarse fustian at all seasons; so that whenever a person was dressed all in white, that person was said to be dressed à la paysanne, and it was one of the most popular fashions.
The marquis was certainly very amusing in that dress; but everybody was so accustomed to see him disguised as a young man; he was tricked out from head to foot with such beautiful things and such curious baubles; his perfumes were so exquisite, and, in spite of everything, there was so much nobility in his elderly charms, and so much kindly amiability in his ways, that if people had found him suddenly transformed into the serious, methodical personage that his years would naturally import, they would have regretted the pleasure he gave the eyes and the satisfaction he was able to afford the mind.
About two o'clock a scullion, dressed in ancient feudal costume for the occasion, and stationed at the top of the entrance tower, blew a blast on an old horn to announce the approach of a cavalcade.
The marquis, accompanied by Lucilio, betook himself to that tower to receive the lady of his thoughts. He would have been glad to take his heir with him; but Mario was in Adamas's hands, and, moreover, it was part of a plan finally proposed by the latter, and adopted with some modifications by his master, that the child's appearance on the scene should be postponed until the conclusion of an explanation on a delicate subject with Madame de Beuvre.
[XXXV]
Lauriane arrived, riding a beautiful little white horse which her father had trained for her, and which she managed with remarkable grace.
Thanks to her mourning, which the fashion of that day permitted to be white, she, too, was dressed à la paysanne, with a habit of fine white broadcloth, a waist with stripes of silver lace, and a light lace handkerchief over the inevitable widow's cap.
"Well, well!" cried the downright De Beuvre, when he saw the marquis's costume, "so you have already assumed your lady's colors, my dear son-in-law?"