I was in the ante-room, where the footman was helping me off with my top-coat, when Jean, approaching me with a suspicion of mystery, said:  “My mistress expects to see you immediately, Monsieur, in her bedroom.  If you will walk along the passage and knock at the door at the end, you will find her.”

When one has just returned from the other side of the world, such words sound queer.  The old affair of the kiss recurred to me in spite of myself.  What could my aunt want with me?

I tapped quietly at the door, and heard at once an outburst of stifled laughter.

“Wait a moment,” exclaimed a laughing voice.

“I won’t be seen in this state,” whispered another—­“Yes”—­“No”—­“You are absurd, my dear, since it is an affair of art.”—­“Ha, ha, ha.”  And they laughed and laughed again.

At last a voice cried, “Come in,” and I turned the handle.

At first glance I could only make out a confused chaos, impossible to describe, amidst which my aunt was bustling about clad in pink fleshings.  Clad, did I say?—­very airily.

The furniture, the carpet, the mantel-piece were encumbered, almost buried under a heterogeneous mass of things.  Muslin petticoats, tossed down haphazard, pieces of lace, a cardboard helmet covered with gilt paper, open jewel-cases, bows of ribbon; curling-tongs, half hidden in the ashes; and on every side little pots, paint-brushes, odds and ends of all kinds.  Behind two screens, which ran across the room, I could hear whisperings, and the buzzing sound peculiar to women dressing themselves.  In one corner Silvani—­the illustrious Silvani, still wearing the large white apron he assumes when powdering his clients—­was putting away his powder-puff and turning down his sleeves with a satisfied air.  I stood petrified.  What was going on at my aunt’s?

She discovered my astonishment, and without turning round she said in agitated tones: 

“Ah! is it you, Ernest?” Then as if making up her mind, she broke into a hearty burst of laughter, like all women who have good teeth, and added, with a slightly superior air, “You see, we are having private theatricals.”

Then turning toward me with her elegant coiffure powdered to excess, I could see that her face was painted like that of a priestess of antiquity.  That gauze, that atmosphere, redolent with feminine perfumes, and behind those screens-behind those screens!

“Women in society,” I said to myself, looking about me, “must be mad to amuse themselves in this fashion.”

“And what piece are you going to play, aunt, in such an attractive costume?”

“Good evening, Captain,” called out a laughing voice from behind the screen on the right.

“We were expecting you,” came from behind the screen on the left.

“Good evening, ladies; what can I do for you?”