I remembered soon enough that the man was a philanthropist, that he might be an excellent man of heart and indifferent of taste. He must be. But I was prone to be influenced by things of this sort, and felt depressed at the thought that so much of royal excellence should weigh so heavily in the wrong scale of the balance of the applied arts. I turned my back on the room and gazed at the blazing white decorations of the opposite house-fronts. A door behind me must have opened, for I heard the sounds of a concluding tirade in a high-pitched voice. "_Et quant à un duc de farce, je ne m'en fiche pas mal, moi_," it said in an accent curiously compounded of the foreign and the _coulisse_. A muttered male remonstrance ensued, and then, with disconcerting clearness: "_Gr-r-rangeur--Eschingan--eh bien--il entend. Et moi, j'entends, moi aussi. Tu veux me jouer contre elle. La Grangeur--pah! Consoles-toi avec elle, mon vieux. Je ne veux plus de toi. Tu m'as donné de tes sales rentes Groenlandoises, et je n'ai pas pu les vendre. Ah, vieux farceur, tu vas voir ce que j'en vais faire._" A glorious creature--a really glorious creature--came out of an adjoining room. She was as frail, as swaying as a garden lily. Her great blue eyes turned irefully upon me, her bowed lips parted, her nostrils quivered. "_Et quant à vous, M. Grangeur Eschingan,_" she began, "_je vais vous donner mon idée à moi ..._" I did not understand the situation in the least, but I appreciated the awkwardness of it. The world seemed to be standing on its head. I was overcome; but I felt for the person in the next room. I did not know what to do. Suddenly I found myself saying: "I am extremely sorry, madam, but I don't understand French." An expression of more intense vexation passed into her face--her beautiful face. I fancy she wished--wished intensely--to give me the benefit of her "_idée à elle_." She made a quick, violent gesture of disgusted contempt, and turned toward the half-open door from which she had come. She began again to dilate upon the little weaknesses of the person behind, when silently and swiftly it closed. We heard the lock click. With extraordinary quickness she had her mouth at the keyhole: "_Peeg, peeg_," she enunciated. Then she stood to her full height, her face became calm, her manner stately. She glided half way across the room, paused, looked at me, and pointed toward the unmoving door.