noticeable as a specimen of the style, both noble and elegant, of the
reign of Louis XIII., coming singularly, as it did, between the bad
taste of the expiring renaissance and the heavy grandeur of Louis
XIV., at its dawn. This transition period is shown in many public
buildings. The massive scroll-work of several facades--that of the
Sorbonne, for instance,--and columns rectified according to the rules
of Grecian art, were beginning to appear in this architecture.

A grocer, a lucky adulterator, now took the place of the former
ecclesiastical governor of an institution called in former times
L'Economat; an establishment connected with the general agency of the
old French clergy, and founded by the long-sighted genius of
Richelieu. Thuillier's name opened for him the doors of the salon,
where sat enthroned in velvet and gold, amid the most magnificent
"Chineseries," the poor woman who weighed with all her avoirdupois on
the hearts and minds of princes and princesses at the "popular balls"
of the palace.

"Isn't she a good subject for 'La Caricature'?" said a so-called lady
of the bedchamber to a duchess, who could hardly help laughing at the
aspect of Zelie, glittering with diamonds, red as a poppy, squeezed
into a gold brocade, and rolling along like the casts of her former
shop.

"Will you pardon me, fair lady," began Thuillier, twisting his body,
and pausing in pose number two of his imperial repertory, "for having
allowed this invitation to remain in my desk, thinking, all the while,
that it was sent? It is for to-day, but perhaps I am too late?"

Zelie examined her husband's face as he approached them to receive