“It is just so.... The way things were managed shows the Smithsons to be sagacious people. They invited me, in order to make me understand at once the position I hold in their estimation—that of engineer and superintendent, nothing more.”
“I am really amazed!”
“And I am equally so. I did not expect it, but the fact is too evident.”
“Well, tell me all that happened, without omitting anything.”
“Not to omit anything would make the story long, and it is not worth the trouble. I will briefly relate what I think will interest you, that you may have an idea of this first visit. There were but four other guests, whom I only regarded with indifference. They were neither pleasing nor displeasing, so it is useless to speak of them. We will confine ourselves to the leading members of the household. I will first speak of the real though unacknowledged head. My mind is made up on this point. As I saw from the first, it is Mlle. Eugénie who rules the house.”
“Even her father?”
“Yes; even her father; not as openly and directly as she does her mother, but as unmistakably by dint of management.”
“Is she really a superior woman, as I have been told, or is she merely shrewd and imperious?”
“Oh! no. Those who have sounded her praises have not deceived you. She is by no means a common person. In the first place, it must be confessed she is really handsome. There is especially a rare intelligence and dignity in her appearance. She converses well, often says something profound, and is always interesting. She is a lover of the arts, and all she says, all she does, evinces an elevated mind.”
“Such a person as is seldom met with, then—a model of perfection?”