"I should be very happy if one or two of the young ladies consented to sit at a window."
And nobody had prompted him in that! In vain I objected that the hour was early, and that my sisters-in-law got up very late.
"Oh, it does not matter," said he. "We will wait for them. Ask the ladies to get ready, and we will come back in half an hour."
Think how nice it would be in a year or two in Berlin, or Leipzig, or Heidelberg, to show a few photographs! "Here are a few souvenirs of our victorious stay in France! In that house we led a very happy life. The young ladies whom you see were reluctant hostesses, but the French, breathing revenge, were obliged to welcome us!"
The whole family was in a fury of anger.
"Of course, it is out of the question to comply with all the wishes of these wretched Prussians!"
Two days before Barbu had invited his brothers-in-arms to dinner. Upon this occasion he asked us for a table-cloth, a large table-cloth.
We took out of its dark hiding-place a damask cloth and eighteen napkins.
"Is that what you want, sir?"
"We wish vases also."