"There, that's right!" she said, smiling pleasantly; "like that, it is perfectly lovely!" The marchioness, her eyes shining with affection, was looking at her. "What do you think of her? isn't she sweet?" the old lady said to Bertrade, who seemed to be admiring Bijou also. Madame de Rueille looked at the young tutor, who was standing still in the middle of the room. "Poor fellow!" she said. "What, still! Well, decidedly, Monsieur Giraud appears to interest you very much!" "Very much indeed! I am sorry for people who are sensitive and unhappy; for, you see, I am one of the merry ones myself!" "Oh!--I don't know about that. You said just now that Jean was acting blind; well, I should say you were acting merry. You are merry, for instance, when anyone is looking at you." The young wife did not answer, she only pointed towards Bijou. "She is one of the genuinely merry ones, at any rate, is she not, grandmamma?" Bijou had just given the children some flowers, and was now speaking to the Abbe Courteil. "And you too, monsieur, I want to decorate you with my flowers! There, now, just tell me if that rose is not beautiful? Ah, if you want a lovely rose, that certainly is one." She was holding out to him an enormous rose, which was full blown, and looked like a regular cabbage. The abbe had risen from his seat without loosing the bag containing the loto numbers. He looked scared, and stammered out as he stepped back: "Mademoiselle, it is indeed a superb flower; but--but I should not know where to put it. The button-holes of my cassock are so small, the stalk would never go through. I am very much obliged, mademoiselle, I really am. I--but there is no place to put it--it is--" "Oh, but there is room for it in your girdle," she answered, laughing. "There, monsieur, look there--it is as though it had been made for it!" Standing at some little distance away, she pushed the long stalk of the flower between the abbe's girdle and cassock. He thanked her as he bowed awkwardly. "I am much obliged, mademoiselle, it is very kind of you; I am quite touched--quite touched." At every movement the rose swung about in the loose girdle. It moved backwards and forwards in the most comical way, with ridiculous little jerks, showing up to advantage against the cassock which was all twisted like a screw round the abbe's thin body. "Now, I am going to arrange my vases," remarked Bijou, when she had adorned everyone with flowers. "Where?" asked M. de Rueille. "Why, in the dining-room, in the drawing-room, in the hall, here, everywhere." "We will come and help you!" exclaimed several voices. "Oh, no!--instead of helping me you would just hinder me."