"Gentlemen," exclaimed M. de Lucenay, "let us who are married admire D'Harville in silence. A man who contrives a surprise for his wife to the amount of forty-two thousand francs! _Diable!_ we must not noise that abroad, or it would be a detestable precedent." "Laugh on, gentlemen, as much as you please," said the marquis, gaily. "I love my wife, and am not ashamed to confess it; on the contrary, I boast of it." "It is plain enough to be seen," said M. de Saint-Remy; "such a present speaks more eloquently than all the protestation in the world." "I will take this necklace, then," said M. d'Harville, "if the setting of black enamel seems to you in good taste, Saint-Remy." "Oh, it sets off the brilliancy of the stones; it is exquisitely devised." "Then this it shall be," said M. d'Harville. "You will settle, M. Baudoin, with M. Doublet, my man of business." "M. Doublet told me as much, my lord marquis," said the jeweller, who quitted the apartment, after having packed up his bag without counting the jewels which he had brought (such was his confidence), and notwithstanding M. de Saint-Remy had for a long time and curiously handled and examined them during the interview. M. d'Harville gave the necklace to Joseph, who was waiting, and said to him, in a low tone: "Mlle. Juliette must put these diamonds cleverly away with those of her mistress, so that la marquise may not suspect; and then her surprise will be the greater." At this moment the _maitre d'hotel_ announced that the breakfast was ready; and the guests, passing into the dining-room, seated themselves. "Do you know, my dear D'Harville," said M. de Lucenay, "that this house is one of the most elegant and best arranged in Paris?" "It is very convenient, certainly, but we want room; I have a plan to add a gallery on the garden. Madame d'Harville wishes to give some grand balls, and our salons are not large enough. Then, I think, nothing is more inconvenient than the encroachments of fetes on the apartments one usually occupies, and from which, on such occasions, you are necessarily driven." "I am quite of D'Harville's opinion," said M. de Saint-Remy; "nothing is more wretched, more tradesmanlike, than these movings, compelled by the coming of balls and concerts. To give fetes, really of the first class, without inconveniencing oneself, there must be devoted to their uses peculiar and special suites of apartments; and then vast and splendid rooms, devoted to a magnificent ball, ought to assume an appearance wholly distinct from that of ordinary salons. There is the same difference between these two sets of apartments as between a monumental fresco-painting and a sketch on a painter's easel." "He is right," said M. d'Harville. "What a pity, gentlemen, that Saint-Remy has not twelve or fifteen hundred thousand livres a year! What wonders he would create for our admiration!"