We entered a great triangular hall, lighted by wide windows above the door, and candelabra of shining brass that hung from its high ceiling.  There were sliding doors of polished wood on each side of it.  A great stairway filled the point of the triangle.  I was shown to my room, which was as big as a ball-room, it seemed to me, and grandly furnished; no castle of my dreams had been quite so fine.  The valet of the count looked after me, with offers of new linen and more things than I could see use for.  He could not speak English, I remember, and I addressed him in the good French my mother had taught me.

The kind of life I saw in this grand home was not wholly new to me, for both my mother and father had known good living in their youth, and I had heard much of it.  I should have been glad of a new uniform; but after I had had my bath and put on the new shirt and collar the valet had brought me, I stood before the long pier-glass and saw no poor figure of a man.

The great dining-hall of the count was lighted with many candles when we came in to dinner.  It had a big fireplace, where logs were blazing, for the night had turned cool, and a long table with a big epergne of wrought silver, filled with roses, in its centre.  A great silken rug lay under the table, on a polished floor, and the walls were hung with tapestry.  I sat beside the count, and opposite me was the daughter of the Sieur Louis Francois de Saint-Michel, king’s forester under Louis XVI.  Therese, the handsome daughter of the count, sat facing him at the farther end of the table, and beside her was the young Marquis de Gonvello.  M. Pidgeon, the celebrated French astronomer, Moss Kent, brother of the since famous chancellor, the Sieur Michel, and the Baroness de Ferre, with her two wards, the Misses Louise and Louison de Lambert, were also at dinner.  These young ladies were the most remarkable of the company; their beauty was so brilliant, so fascinating, it kindled a great fire in me the moment I saw it.  They said little, but seemed to have much interest in all the talk of the table.  I looked at them more than was polite, I am sure, but they looked at me quite as often.  They had big, beautiful brown eyes, and dark hair fastened high with jewelled pins, and profiles like those of the fair ladies of Sir Peter Lely, so finely were they cut.  One had a form a bit fuller and stronger than the other’s, but they were both as tall and trim as a young beech, with lips cherry-red and cheeks where one could see faintly the glow of their young blood.  Their gowns were cut low, showing the graceful lines of neck and shoulder and full bosom.  I had seen pretty girls, many of them, but few high-bred, beautiful young women.  The moment I saw these two some new and mighty force came into me.  There were wine and wit a-plenty at the count’s table, and other things that were also new to me, and for which I retained perhaps too great a fondness.