CHAPTER IV.
A DANCE AND A PROMISE.
Our little French friend, Madame Didier, was not a woman to do things by halves.

She was one of those rare exceptions among Parisian ladies--she was a perfectly happy wife; nay, more, she was in love with her own husband, a fact which, considering the present state of society both in France and England, rendered her almost contemptible in the eyes of all advanced thinkers.

She was plump and jolly in appearance; round-eyed and brisk as a lively robin.

Her husband, a large, mild-faced placid man--"mon petit mari," as she called him--permitted her to have her own way in everything, and considered all she did as perfectly well done.

Therefore, when she had proposed this informal dance at the Hotel de L----, he made no objection, but entered into her plans with spirit; and, what was far more important, opened his purse readily to her demands for the necessary expenses.