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 dresses before company so brilliant as I know yours always to be."

"Every one (cried Madame Chatteneuf), will be dressed quite in a simple stile, I can assure you, for it is to be quite a rural affair; we are to dance in the garden, and have a collation in the banqueting-house; and should I now be deprived of the pleasure of your company and Mam'selle Clermont's, after the hope I entertained of enjoying it, I should derive little from the amusement."

"Enough (said the Countess), we will not mortify ourselves by refusing your invitation."

The conversation then turned on general subjects, and Madeline became if possible more pleased with her new friends. After dinner they proceeded to the garden which was large and beautiful: on a spacious and level green, at the remote end of it, surrounded with trees, stood the banqueting-house, a light and elegant structure, elevated on white marble steps, and encompassed