She wore expensive boots, and never was seen on foot, except, occasionally, in the finest weather.

Though her husband allowed but five hundred francs a year for her toilet, that sum is immense in the provinces, especially if well laid out.

So that Madame Moreau, fair, rosy, and fresh, about thirty-six years of age, still slender and delicate in shape in spite of her three children, played the young girl and gave herself the airs of a princess.

If, when she drove by in her caleche, some stranger had asked, "Who is she ?" Madame Moreau would have been furious had she heard the reply: "The wife of the steward at Presles." She wished to be taken for the mistress of the chateau.

In the villages, she patronized the people in the tone of a great lady.