These candlesticks for two lights, festooned with chains (an invention of the reign of Louis XV.), were becoming rare.

On a green and gold bracket fastened to the wall opposite to the window was a common but excellent clock.

The curtains, which squeaked upon their rods, were at least fifty years old; their material, of cotton in a square pattern like that of mattresses, alternately pink and white, came from the Indies.

A sideboard and dinner-table completed the equipment of the room, which was kept with extreme nicety.
At the corner of the fireplace was an immense sofa, Rigou's especial seat.

In the angle, above a little "bonheur du jour," which served him as a desk, and hanging to a common screw, was a pair of bellows, the origin of Rigou's fortune.
From this succinct description, in style like that of an auction sale, it will be easy to imagine that the bedrooms of Monsieur and Madame Rigou were limited to mere necessaries; yet it would be a mistake to suppose that such parsimony affected the essential excellence of those necessaries.