Michel saw several young mechanics of his acquaintance pass. They were performing the duties which they had undertaken, and they attracted attention by their manly appearance and by a touch of picturesqueness in their holiday attire. The majordomo had evidently selected them from among the most _presentable_, and they were well aware of it; for they, too, posed artlessly: one put forward each shoulder in turn to display its enormous breadth; another made the most of every inch of his great stature as he passed many a diminutive great personage; a third elevated the arch of his eyebrows to show the fair dames an eye as bright as a carbuncle. Michel was surprised to see those honest fellows transform themselves so, and sacrifice the advantages of their natural dignity or their attractive exterior by an affectation, perhaps involuntary, but certainly ridiculous.--"I knew," he thought, "that all men eagerly sought approbation, to whatever class or profession they might belong. But why does this craving to attract attention suddenly deprive us of the charm or the dignity of our manners? Can it be that the desire is over-eager, or that the object is contemptible? Must beauty necessarily be unconscious of itself in order to lose nothing of its splendor? Or am I alone endowed with this intolerable clearness of vision? Where is the intense enjoyment that I expected to find here? Instead of following with interest the actions of other people, I am exerting myself to pass judgment in cold blood on everything that meets my eye, and to deprive myself of any external enjoyment!" By dint of watching so closely and making so many comparisons, Michel had forgotten the main object of his presence at the ball. He remembered at last that he was especially desirous to study calmly a certain figure, and he was about to ascend the great staircase and wander about the interior of the palace, where all the rooms were open and lighted, When, happening to turn his head, he saw close at hand a detail of the decorations of which he had forgotten to observe the effect. It was a rockwork grotto, which formed a recess of considerable size under the staircase. He had himself decorated with shellwork, branches of coral and picturesque plants, that cool retreat, at the farther end of which an alabaster naiad poured water from her urn into a huge shell, always brimming full of clear running water.