“Yes, Pierre, that was your promise, if I would walk this way with you. Where shall we begin?”
“Here, Amélie,” replied he, kissing her fondly; “now the congress is opened! I am your slave of the wonderful lamp, ready to set up and pull down the world at your bidding. The old mansion is your own. It shall have no rest until it becomes, within and without, a mirror of the perfect taste and fancy of its lawful mistress.”
“Not yet, Pierre. I will not let you divert me from my purpose by your flatteries. The dear old home is perfect, but I must have the best suite of rooms in it for your noble father, and the next best for good Dame Rochelle. I will fit them up on a plan of my own, and none shall say me nay; that is all the change I shall make.”
“Is that all? and you tried to frighten the slave of the lamp with the weight of your commands. A suite of rooms for my father, and one for good Dame Rochelle! Really, and what do you devote to me, Amélie?”
“Oh, all the rest, with its mistress included, for the reason that what is good enough for me is good enough for you, Pierre,” said she gaily.
“You little economist! Why, one would say you had studied housekeeping under Madame Painchaud.”
“And so I have. You do not know what a treasure I am, Pierre,” said she, laughing merrily. “I graduated under mes tantes in the kitchen of the Ursulines, and received an accessit as bonne menagère which in secret I prize more than the crown of honor they gave me.”
“My fortune is made, and I am a rich man for life,” exclaimed Pierre, clapping his hands; “why, I shall have to marry you like the girls of Acadia, with a silver thimble on your finger and a pair of scissors at your girdle, emblems of industrious habits and proofs of a good housewife!”
“Yes, Pierre, and I will comb your hair to my own liking. Your valet is a rough groom,” said she, taking off his hat and passing her finger through his thick, fair locks.
Pierre, although always dressed and trimmed like a gentleman, really cared little for the petit maître fashions of the day. Never had he felt a thrill of such exquisite pleasure as when Amélie's hands arranged his rough hair to her fancy.