sallow and almost diaphanous creature, would have been engaged by the
Bailli de Ferrette as first gentleman-in-waiting if that diplomatist
had been the Grand Duke of Baden instead of being merely his envoy.

Monsieur de la Baudraye, whose legs were so thin that, for mere
decency, he wore false calves, whose thighs were like the arms of an
average man, whose body was not unlike that of a cockchafer, would
have been an advantageous foil to the Bailli de Ferrette. As he
walked, the little vine-owner's leg-pads often twisted round on to his
shins, so little did he make a secret of them, and he would thank any
one who warned him of this little mishap. He wore knee-breeches, black
silk stockings, and a white waistcoat till 1824. After his marriage he
adopted blue trousers and boots with heels, which made Sancerre
declare that he had added two inches to his stature that he might come
up to his wife's chin. For ten years he was always seen in the same
little bottle-green coat with large white-metal buttons, and a black
stock that accentuated his cold stingy face, lighted up by gray-blue
eyes as keen and passionless as a cat's. Being very gentle, as men are
who act on a fixed plan of conduct, he seemed to make his wife happy
by never contradicting her; he allowed her to do the talking, and was
satisfied to move with the deliberate tenacity of an insect.

Dinah, adored for her beauty, in which she had no rival, and admired
for her cleverness by the most gentlemanly men of the place,
encouraged their admiration by conversations, for which it was
subsequently asserted, she prepared herself beforehand. Finding
herself listened to with rapture, she soon began to listen to herself,
enjoyed haranguing her audience, and at last regarded her friends as
the chorus in a tragedy, there only to give her her cues. In fact, she
had a very fine collection of phrases and ideas, derived either from