husband are."

When we returned to the joyous company in the garden all wanted to speak
at once. The countess imposed silence, and then Tonton informed us that a
grand ball was proposed in our honor, to be given in the large dining-room
of Mr. Morphy's tavern, under the direction of Neville Déclouet, the
following Monday--that is, in four days.

Oh, that ball! I lay my pen on the table and my head in my hands and see
the bright, pretty faces of young girls and richly clad cavaliers, and
hear the echoes of that music so different from what we have to-day. Alas!
the larger part of that company are sleeping now in the cemetery of St.
Martinville.

Wherever you went, whoever you met, the ball was the subject of all
conversation. All the costumes, masculine and feminine, were prepared in
profound secrecy. Each one vowed to astonish, dazzle, surpass his
neighbor. My father, forgetting the presents from Alix, gave us ever so
much money and begged Madame du Clozel to oversee our toilets; but what
was the astonishment of the dear baroness to see us buy only some vials of
perfumery and two papers of pins. We paid ten dollars for each vial and
fifteen for the pins!

Celeste invited us to see her costume the moment it reached her. It
certainly did great honor to the dressmaker of St. Martinville. The dress
was simply made, of very fine white muslin caught up _en paniers_ on a
skirt of blue satin. Her beautiful black hair was to be fastened with a
pearl comb, and to go between its riquettes she showed us two bunches of
forget-me-nots as blue as her eyes. The extremely long-pointed waist of
her dress was of the same color as the petticoat, was decolleté, and on