No center table and none of those barbaric pieces of furniture that we call chairs.  But a great number of buffet tables of gilded wood, like those of Venice, heavy hangings of dull and subdued colors, and cushions, Tuareg or Tunisian.  In the center was a huge mat on which a feast was placed in finely woven baskets among silver pitchers and copper basins filled with perfumed water.  The sight of it filled me with childish satisfaction.

M. Le Mesge stepped forward and introduced us to the two persons who already had taken their places on the mat.

“Mr. Spardek,” he said; and by that simple phrase I understood how far our host placed himself above vain human titles.

The Reverend Mr. Spardek, of Manchester, bowed reservedly and asked our permission to keep on his tall, wide-brimmed hat.  He was a dry, cold man, tall and thin.  He ate in pious sadness, enormously.

“Monsieur Bielowsky,” said M. Le Mesge, introducing us to the second guest.

“Count Casimir Bielowsky, Hetman of Jitomir,” the latter corrected with perfect good humor as he stood up to shake hands.

I felt at once a certain liking for the Hetman of Jitomir who was a perfect example of an old beau.  His chocolate-colored hair was parted in the center (later I found out that the Hetman dyed it with a concoction of khol).  He had magnificent whiskers, also chocolate-colored, in the style of the Emperor Francis Joseph.  His nose was undeniably a little red, but so fine, so aristocratic.  His hands were marvelous.  It took some thought to place the date of the style of the count’s costume, bottle green with yellow facings, ornamented with a huge seal of silver and enamel.  The recollection of a portrait of the Duke de Morny made me decide on 1860 or 1862; and the further chapters of this story will show that I was not far wrong.

The count made me sit down beside him.  One of his first questions was to demand if I ever cut fives.[9]

[Footnote 9:  Tirer a cinq, a card game played only for very high stakes.]

“That depends on how I feel,” I replied.

“Well said.  I have not done so since 1866.  I swore off.  A row.  The devil of a party.  One day at Walewski’s.  I cut fives.  Naturally I wasn’t worrying any.  The other had a four.  ‘Idiot!’ cried the little Baron de Chaux Gisseux who was laying staggering sums on my table.  I hurled a bottle of champagne at his head.  He ducked.  It was Marshal Baillant who got the bottle.  A scene!  The matter was fixed up because we were both Free Masons.  The Emperor made me promise not to cut fives again.  I have kept my promise not to cut fives again.  I have kept my promise.  But there are moments when it is hard....”

He added in a voice steeped in melancholy: 

“Try a little of this Ahaggar 1880.  Excellent vintage.  It is I, Lieutenant, who instructed these people in the uses of the juice of the vine.  The vine of the palm trees is very good when it is properly fermented, but it gets insipid in the long run.”