Then, to go to dinner in the city, what an ordeal! What must he do to be presented in a drawing-room?
The very thought of it made him shiver.

But Maurice invited him so cordially that he was irresistible, and Amedee accepted.
The following Sunday, then, spruced up in his best-what could have possessed the haberdasher to induce him to buy a pair of red dog-skin gloves?
He soon saw that they were too new and too startling for the rest of his costume--Amedee went up to the first floor of a fine house on the Faubourg St.Honore and rang gently at the door on the left.

A young and pretty maid--one of those brunettes who have a waist that one can clasp in both hands, and a suspicion of a moustache--opened the door and ushered the young man into a drawing-room furnished in a simple but luxurious manner.

Maurice was alone, standing with his back to the fire, in the attitude of master of the house.

He received his friend with warm demonstrations of pleasure.