"My wife has gone to see if dinner will be served soon," hastily interposed Monsieur Glumeau. "The master"s eye, you know, or rather the mistress"s, is always indispensable when one entertains a few friends."
"And your son?"
"My son--I can"t understand his absence; he should have been here long ago; something has happened----"
"P--p--papa, I think I hear my b--b--brother"s voice in the d--d--dining-room; he"s with Monsieur Cha--Chambourdin."
"That"s very fortunate; we shall know in a minute what has detained him."--And Monsieur Glumeau whispered in his daughter"s ear: "Go and see if your mother has prepared--you know what. I must have it."
"But p--p--papa, I c--c--can"t--can"t leave the s--s--salon n--now; that would l--l--leave only you with the g--g--guests, and you"re not very b--b--brilliant."
"Parbleu! you must come in with me, you rascal!" exclaimed a young man, the possessor of a comely face, but with an absolutely bald head, who entered the salon at that moment, dragging young Astianax, who had his hands over the rents in his trousers.
"Mesdames and messieurs, I have the honor to present a young man who was scampering upstairs, without stopping at his worthy father"s door; but I seized him on the wing, saying: "My dear boy, it is too late to go up to your room; the paternal arms await you and the soup must be served."--Still, he wouldn"t come, and you see now how he objects to coming in."
"What does this mean, my son?" inquired Monsieur Glumeau, after shaking the hand that Chambourdin offered him. "Why do you stand there at the door and not come in?"
"Excuse me, father--allow me to go up to my room a moment; I will come right down again; it is impossible for me to face our guests at this moment."
"What! impossible? why, you"re facing them now."
"And I don"t see that the boy is dressed like a wild Indian, either!"
said Chambourdin, as he saluted the ladies.
"My dear good father, I a.s.sure you that I have something on that is--is not presentable."
"Mon Dieu! c--c--can it be that my b--b--brother has the same trouble as p--p--papa?" said tall Eolinde to herself; "does he want one t--t--too?"
Monsieur Glumeau, who had had the same thought as his daughter, dared say nothing more; but the bald youth, who was in the habit of playing jokes in company, and who was very unceremonious wherever he went, crept noiselessly behind the son of the house, and, giving him a sharp push, forced him to pitch forward into the salon; and in that movement Monsieur Astianax was obliged to remove his hands from his knees, thus disclosing the two rents; whereupon everybody uttered an exclamation of surprise.
"Great heaven!"
"Ah! the poor fellow!"
"Both knees torn! he must have fallen."
"You fell, didn"t you?"
"How does it happen, my son, that those trousers, which are almost new, are torn on both knees?"
"Well! now you know why I didn"t want to come in--you see that I was right. Am I presentable like this?"
"But, my son----"
"It is I who am to blame for everything!" cried Chambourdin; "I forced him to disclose his disaster. Strictly, I ought to lend him some trousers, but as I believe he has another pair, I prefer that he should wear his own.--Go, hapless victim of a slippery sidewalk, but don"t be long! something tells me that the soup is not far away."
Little Astianax disappeared, and Monsieur Glumeau would have been glad to do as much, but his guests surrounded him and talked to him; he was hemmed in on all sides.
"Everybody must have come, is it not so, my dear friend?" said Chambourdin, offering him snuff in one of those snuff-boxes known as _rat-tails_.
"No, indeed, and it"s very lucky--otherwise there would be thirteen of us," replied Glumeau, writhing about as inoffensively as possible.
"Thirteen! I had just as soon sit thirteen at table. Truffles, champagne, chambertin and thirteen at table every day--I"ll subscribe for that if I don"t have to pay in advance."
"Or if you don"t have to pay afterward, perhaps?" said Monsieur Dufournelle.
"Oh! what a spiteful thing to say, big Dufournelle! How fat the fellow is growing! If he keeps on he won"t be able to go into any house; part.i.tions of decent dimensions no longer conceal him--he will have to have some made expressly for him."
"Hold your tongue, advocate without causes!"
"I an advocate? Oh! I have abandoned the profession; I wasn"t loquacious enough, and then I was too good a fellow. I settled disputes on the instant. I induced the parties to dine together and I dined with them; we all got tipsy; after dinner they embraced and that was the end of their litigation. My confreres begged me to give up practice--I was ruining the profession."
"Whom else do you expect, Monsieur Glumeau?" inquired Monsieur Camuzard.
"A lady--a charming lady--not very young, but very good-looking still."
"And her name?"
"The Baronne de Grangeville."
"A baroness! the deuce! a real baroness?"
"I never knew a sham one."
"I was joking.--Is she married?"
"No, she"s a widow."
"Oho! a widow, eh? And rich?"
"I believe that she is very rich.--But I beg pardon--I have to say a word to my daughter."
"I can"t conceive what your mother is doing!" said Glumeau in his daughter"s ear. "I can"t remain in this plight. Something must have happened to the instrument. Go and see, Eolinde, and urge your mother to make haste."
Mademoiselle Eolinde was sorely vexed to be obliged to leave the company; she went out of the room with a sulky expression, and without acknowledging the fifth bow that young Kingerie addressed to her.
"Something out of the natural course is going on here," said Madame Dufournelle to her husband; "Madame Glumeau goes out and does not return; the son"s trousers are all torn, and he disappears; the daughter has left the salon in a pet; Monsieur Glumeau stands first on one leg, then on the other; he frowns and doesn"t pay any attention to the conversation. There certainly is something wrong!"
"Some dish spoiled, or some entree from the restaurant that hasn"t come, perhaps; or rather, they are making great preparations to receive this baroness whom they expect."
"Nonsense! really? a baroness of what?"
"What do you say? a baroness of what?--A baroness, that"s all I know."
"And that"s why these ladies leave us like this! Aren"t we as good as a baroness, I should like to know?"
"Hush, Eleonore!"