“At this period my mother’s chambermaid was one of the prettiest girls you could see, fair-haired, slender and sprightly in manner, a genuine soubrette of the old type that no longer exists.  To-day these creatures spring up into hussies before their time.  Paris, with the aid of the railways, attracts them, calls them, takes hold of them, as soon as they are budding into womanhood, these little sluts who in old times remained simple maid-servants.  Every man passing by, as recruiting sergeants did formerly, looking for recruits, with conscripts, entices and ruins them —­these foolish lassies—­and we have now only the scum of the female sex for servant maids, all that is dull, nasty, common and ill-formed, too ugly, even for gallantry.

“Well, this girl was charming, and I often gave her a kiss in dark corners; nothing more, I swear to you!  She was virtuous, besides; and I had some respect for my mother’s house, which is more than can be said of the blackguards of the present day.

“Now, it happened that my man-servant, the ex-soldier, the old farmer you have just seen, fell madly in love with this girl, perfectly daft.  The first thing we noticed was that he forgot everything, he paid no attention to anything.

“My father said incessantly: 

“‘See here, Jean, what’s the matter with you?  Are you ill?’

“He replied: 

“‘No, no, M’sieu le Baron.  There’s nothing the matter with me.’

“He grew thin; he broke glasses and let plates fall when waiting on the table.  We thought he must have been attacked by some nervous affection, and sent for the doctor, who thought he could detect symptoms of spinal disease.  Then my father, full of anxiety about his faithful man-servant, decided to place him in a private hospital.  When the poor fellow heard of my father’s intentions he made a clean breast of it.

“‘M’sieu le Baron’

“‘Well, my boy?’

“‘You see, the thing I want is not physic.’

“‘Ha! what is it, then?’

“‘It’s marriage!’

“My father turned round and stared at him in astonishment.

“‘What’s that you say, eh?’

“’It’s marriage.”

“‘Marriage!  So, then, you jackass, you’re to love.’

“‘That’s how it is, M’sieu le Baron.’

“And my father began to laugh so immoderately that my mother called out through the wall of the next room: 

“‘What in the world is the matter with you, Gontran?’

“He replied: 

“‘Come here, Catherine.’

“And when she came in he told her, with tears in his eyes from sheer laughter, that his idiot of a servant-man was lovesick.

“But my mother, instead of laughing, was deeply affected.

“‘Who is it that you have fallen in love with, my poor fellow?’ she asked.

“He answered without hesitation: 

“‘With Louise, Madame le Baronne.’

“My mother said with the utmost gravity:  ’We must try to arrange this matter the best way we can.’