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 saw many splendid gilt tables, chairs, divans, cabinets and the like, which she, with her limited experience in furniture buying in the street of the Black Cat, thought must be very dear: some of the most splendid pieces must cost as much as four hundred francs, thought innocent Fifi.

But it was not enough for a thing to be expensive; it must be outrageous in taste and design to be available for her purpose, and with this in view she roved around the establishment, attended by a clerk of lofty manners and a patronizing air. At last, however, she pounced upon an object worthy to be classed with the yellow and purple brocade. This was a huge, blue satin bed, with elaborate gilt posts, and cornice, vast curtains of lace as well as satin, cords, tassels, and every other species of ornament which could be fastened to a bed.

Fifi, who had never seen anything like it before, gasped in her amazement and delight, the clerk meanwhile surveying her with an air of condescending amusement.

Here was the thing to drive Louis Bourcet to madness, thought Fifi, surveying the bed rapturously. If she could once get it into the house, it would be difficult to get it out, it was so large