"That's what they call the Rabouilleuse over there," answered Gritte.
"She left the salon and all Monsieur Rouget's part of the house in a
pitiable state; but since yesterday the rooms have been made to look
like what they were before Monsieur Maxence went to live there. You
can see your face on the floors. La Vedie told me that Kouski went off
on horseback at five o'clock this morning, and came back at nine,
bringing provisions. It is going to be a grand dinner!--a dinner fit
for the archbishop of Bourges! There's a fine bustle in the kitchen,
and they are as busy as bees. The old man says, 'I want to do honor to
my nephew,' and he pokes his nose into everything. It appears _the
Rougets_ are highly flattered by the letter. Madame came and told me
so. Oh! she had on such a dress! I never saw anything so handsome in
my life. Two diamonds in her ears!--two diamonds that cost, Vedie told
me, three thousand francs apiece; and such lace! rings on her fingers,
and bracelets! you'd think she was a shrine; and a silk dress as fine
as an altar-cloth. So then she said to me, 'Monsieur is delighted to
find his sister so amiable, and I hope she will permit us to pay her
all the attention she deserves. We shall count on her good opinion
after the welcome we mean to give her son. Monsieur is very impatient
to see his nephew.' Madame had little black satin slippers; and her
stockings! my! they were marvels,--flowers in silk and openwork, just
like lace, and you could see her rosy little feet through them. Oh!
she's in high feather, and she had a lovely little apron in front of
her which, Vedie says, cost more than two years of our wages put
together."

"Well done! We shall have to dress up," said the artist laughing.

"What do you think of all this, Monsieur Hochon?" said the old lady
when Gritte had departed.