good style to place on the summit of the head, lightly poised,
scarcely stuck at all in the air, with all the teeth showing. Taking
it out of a pretty little lacquered box, she held it up in the air and
blinked her eyes, looking through it at the sky--a bright summer
sky--as one does to examine the quality of a precious stone.

"Here is," she said, "an object of great value that you should offer
to your little wife."

My mousmé, very much taken by it, admired the clearness of the comb
and its graceful shape.

The lacquered box, however, pleased me most. On the cover was a
wonderful painting in gold on gold, representing a field of rice, seen
very close, on a windy day: a tangle of ears and grass beaten down and
twisted by a terrible squall; here and there, between the distorted
stalks, the muddy earth of the rice-swamp was visible; there were even
little pools of water, produced by bits of the transparent lacquer on
which tiny particles of gold seemed to float about like chaff in a
thick liquid; two or three insects, which required a microscope to be
well seen, were clinging in a terrified manner to the rushes, and the
whole picture was no larger than a woman's hand.

As for Madame Prune's comb, I confess it left me indifferent, and I
turned a deaf ear, thinking it very insignificant and expensive. Then
Chrysanthème answered mournfully:

"No, thank you, I don't want it; take it away, dear Madame Prune."

And at the same time she heaved a deep sigh, full of meaning, which