_Lady B._--"Indeed I don't; on the contrary, I know very well that you are wonderfully clever with your needle. But what you are doing there is too delicate for slippers, don't you think so? Those colours will be so quickly soiled, especially if the Count has my husband's trick of crossing his feet when he is sitting or lounging in his easy chair." _La Comtesse._--"They are only for the bedroom. I don't like men in slippers, it makes them look shorter, and authorises them to take little liberties in one's company--to cross their legs, and so on; I shall have heels put to these, I will not have my husband lose a particle of his height in my eyes. And you, dear, what is that you are about?" _Lady B._--"A kind of calotte. We call it a smoking-cap in English." _La Comtesse._--"You don't mean it?" _Lady B._--"Why not?" _La Comtesse._--"How old is Lord B.?" _Lady B._--"Thirty-two." _La Comtesse._--"And you are going to let him wear a cap like that? (_Laughing heartily._) But, _ma chère_, the forehead is the finest part of a man. If you tolerate a skull cap, we shall soon see you knitting him night-caps. It's a sloping and dangerous path you are on. There's divorce ahead...." _Lady B._--"Oh! I like to see men at their ease about the house." _La Comtesse._--"At their ease! And supposing you do, that's not a reason for making them frights. They are quite ugly enough as they are. Besides, you will make that poor Lord B. horribly susceptible to cold in the head. Do you know anything more ridiculous than a man with his nose turned into a noisy trumpet? I should never be able to help laughing in his face; it would be no use my trying." _Lady B._--"For shame!" _La Comtesse._--"It takes such a trifle to spoil a man. Just take the case of the Marquis de P.; he is a splendid-looking man, a gentleman every inch; the carriage of a king. Would you believe it, the marchioness, who, it is said, is as much in love with him as when they were first married, lets him wear spectacles? He looks for all the world like a German doctor in them." _Lady B._--"But what if he is short-sighted?" _La Comtesse._--"A fine reason that! _Les lunettes sont des remèdes d'amour._ As if he couldn't wear a _pince-nez_ or an eye-glass. I rather like an eye-glass, don't you?" _Lady B._--"No, indeed, I think them horrid." _La Comtesse._--"Do you really? Now, I think they give a man a little air of impertinence that is not disagreeable. On young fellows, I admit, they are detestable; but on a man over thirty, I assure you, I rather like them.... Why, dear, nearly every gentleman wears an eye-glass in England!" _Lady B._--"That is true, but they do not use them to stare rudely at every woman they meet. I consider Frenchmen dreadful offenders in that respect." _La Comtesse._--"Englishmen are indifferent towards women."