My aunt sat down, and as she took off her gloves, cast her eyes over the table, the sideboards, the servants in waiting, and the general arrangements of the dining-room.
"François," she said to my uncle's old man-servant, "please send the gardener to me at four o'clock."
"Yes, Madame la Comtesse."
"And then send the steward, whom I do not see here."
"Oh, I am the steward!" replied my uncle.
"That's capital! My compliments to you," she continued; "I might have known it."
"All the same, I fancy I perform my duties very well: is not this new furniture to your taste?"
"Not only so, but I find it very handsome, and I appreciate your antiquarian passion for rare and choice objects; only there is a want of life about it. What are those great vases, may I ask, whose enormous mouths stand empty to receive the dust?"
"Those Mandarins!" said my uncle; "they come from the palace of the Emperor of China."
"Oh, the men, the men!" exclaimed my aunt with a laugh: "if they were in Paradise they would forget to contemplate the Eternal! Now, captain, my lord and spouse, pray tell me of what use to you are beds full of flowers, if you never rejoice your eyes with the sight of them?"