"It seems to me, mesdames, that my chariot is hung perfectly, and that there is no ground for complaint."
"Oho! he calls his coucou a chariot!" whispered Monsieur Berlingue in the paper manufacturer’s ear; while Monsieur Gérard exclaimed:
"Well, well, mesdames, I see that you will soon be carried in palanquins, as in Asia."
"But one must be very comfortable in them," said Eudoxie, glancing at Edouard.
"I favor palanquins, too," said Madame Gérard.
"If she should ever get into one," said Berlingue in an undertone, "I doubt whether she could find men strong enough to carry her."
"As a general rule," said a lady who had not yet spoken, "those men in the East are great inventors."
"Fie! madame, fie!" said another lady, "they are monsters! they have more than one wife at a time."
"What is that you are saying about the men of the East?" cried the Chevalier de Tantignac, returning to the salon; "I know something about them; I spent a long time in Turkey; my doctor ordered me there. I had such a superabundance of health that my doctor said to me: ‘Go to Turkey, my friend, and buy yourself a harem at once; if you don’t, you are a dead man!’"
The ladies put their fans in front of their faces in order to laugh at the chevalier, who had not at all the appearance of a Turk, when Monsieur Férulus entered the salon to ask Robineau if it were time to begin the fête. At sight of Férulus, Madame de Hautmont uttered a shriek, and clung to Edouard, saying: