Saint-Thibault to see off a cargo of puncheons, and return an hour
later to find the discussion approaching a close. Or, if he had no
business to attend to, he would go for a walk on the Mall, whence he
commanded the lovely panorama of the Loire valley, and take a draught
of fresh air while his wife was performing a sonata in words, or a
dialectical duet.

Once fairly established as a Superior Woman, Dinah was eager to prove
her devotion to the most remarkable creations of art. She threw
herself into the propaganda of the romantic school, including, under
Art, poetry and painting, literature and sculpture, furniture and the
opera. Thus she became a mediaevalist. She was also interested in any
treasures that dated from the Renaissance, and employed her allies as
so many devoted commission agents. Soon after she was married, she had
become possessed of the Rougets' furniture, sold at Issoudun early in
1824. She purchased some very good things at Nivernais and the
Haute-Loire. At the New Year and on her birthday her friends never
failed to give her some curiosities. These fancies found favor in the
eyes of Monsieur de la Baudraye; they gave him an appearance of
sacrificing a few crowns to his wife's taste. In point of fact, his
land mania allowed him to think of nothing but the estate of Anzy.

These "antiquities" at that time cost much less than modern furniture.
By the end of five or six years the ante-room, the dining-room, the
two drawing-rooms, and the boudoir which Dinah had arranged on the
ground floor of La Baudraye, every spot even to the staircase, were
crammed with masterpieces collected in the four adjacent departments.
These surroundings, which were called _queer_ by the neighbors, were
quite in harmony with Dinah. All these Marvels, so soon to be the
rage, struck the imagination of the strangers introduced to her; they