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Rh to describe something base and ignoble, cry out in our presence, with a disgust that casts us so violently outside the pale of humanity: «« He has the soul of a domestic; that is the sentiment of a domestic." Then what do you expect us to become in these hells? Do these mistresses really imagine that I should not like to wear fine dresses, ride in fine carriages, have a gay time with lovers, and have servants of my own? They talk to us of devotion, of honesty, of fidelity. Why, but it would choke you to death, my little chippies!

Once, in the Rue Cambon. . . how many of these places I have had! . . . the masters were marrying their daughter. They gave a grand reception in the evening, at which the wedding- presents were exhibited,enough of them to fill a furniture-van. By way of jest I asked Baptiste, the valet de chambre:

"Well, Baptiste, and you? What is your present?"

"My present?" exclaimed Baptiste, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Yes, tell me, what is it?"

"A can of petroleum lighted under their bed. That is my present."

It was a smart answer. Moreover, this Baptiste was an astonishing man in politics.

"And yours, Célestine?" he asked, in his turn.