Moulineaux, has slipped away so adroitly that when the fat countryman
looked round for his colonel there was no sign of him.

The iron gates opened at Pierrotin's demand, and he proudly drove in
to deposit with the concierge the thousand and one utensils belonging

to the great Schinner. Oscar was thunderstruck when he became aware
that Mistigris and his master, the witnesses of his bravado, were to

be installed in the chateau itself. In ten minutes Pierrotin had
discharged the various packages of the painter, the bundles of Oscar

Husson, and the pretty little leather portmanteau, which he took from
its nest of hay and confided mysteriously to the wife of the

concierge. Then he drove out of the courtyard, cracking his whip, and
took the road that led through the forest to Isle-Adam, his face

beaming with the sly expression of a peasant who calculates his
profits. Nothing was lacking now to his happiness; on the morrow he

would have his thousand francs, and, as a consequence, his magnificent
new coach.

CHAPTER VI
THE MOREAU INTERIOR

Oscar, somewhat abashed, was skulking behind a clump of trees in the
centre of the court-yard, and watching to see what became of his two

road-companions, when Monsieur Moreau suddenly came out upon the
portico from what was called the guard-room. He was dressed in a long

blue overcoat which came to his heels, breeches of yellowish leather
and top-boots, and in his hand he carried a riding-whip.

"Ah! my boy, so here you are? How is the dear mamma?" he said, taking
Oscar by the hand. "Good-day, messieurs," he added to Mistigris and

his master, who then came forward. "You are, no doubt, the two
painters whom Monsieur Grindot, the architect, told me to expect."

He whistled twice at the end of his whip; the concierge came.
"Take these gentlemen to rooms 14 and 15. Madame Moreau will give you

the keys. Go with them to show the way; make fires there, if
necessary, and take up all their things. I have orders from Monsieur

le comte," he added, addressing the two young men, "to invite you to
my table, messieurs; we dine at five, as in Paris. If you like

hunting, you will find plenty to amuse you; I have a license from the
Eaux et Forets; and we hunt over twelve thousand acres of forest, not

counting our own domain."
Oscar, the painter, and Mistigris, all more or less subdued, exchanged

glances, but Mistigris, faithful to himself, remarked in a low tone,
"'Veni, vidi, cecidi,--I came, I saw, I slaughtered.'"

Oscar followed the steward, who led him along at a rapid pace through
the park.

"Jacques," said Moreau to one of his children whom they met, "run in
and tell your mother that little Husson has come, and say to her that

I am obliged to go to Les Moulineaux for a moment."
The steward, then about fifty years old, was a dark man of medium

height, and seemed stern. His bilious complexion, to which country
habits had added a certain violent coloring, conveyed, at first sight,

the impression of a nature which was other than his own. His blue eyes
and a large crow-beaked nose gave him an air that was the more

threatening because his eyes were placed too close together. But his
large lips, the outline of his face, and the easy good-humor of his

manner soon showed that his nature was a kindly one. Abrupt in speech
and decided in tone, he impressed Oscar immensely" target="_blank" title="ad.极大地，无限地">immensely by the force of his

penetration, inspired, no doubt, by the affection which he felt for
the boy. Trained by his mother to magnify the steward, Oscar had

always felt himself very small in Moreau's presence; but on reaching
Presles a new sensation came over him, as if he expected some harm

from this fatherly figure, his only protector.
"Well, my Oscar, you don't look pleased at getting here," said the

steward. "And yet you'll find plenty of amusement; you shall learn to
ride on horseback, and shoot, and hunt."

"I don't know any of those things," said Oscar, stupidly.
"But I brought you here to learn them."

"Mamma told me only to stay two weeks because of Madame Moreau."
"Oh! we'll see about that," replied Moreau, rather wounded that his

conjugal authority was doubted.
Moreau's youngest son, an active, strapping lad of twelve, here ran

up.
"Come," said his father, "take Oscar to your mother."

He himself went rapidly along the shortest path to the gamekeeper's
house, which was situated between the park and the forest.

The pavilion, or lodge, in which the count had established his
steward, was built a few years before the Revolution. It stood in the

centre of a large garden, one wall of which adjoined the court-yard of
the stables and offices of the chateau itself. Formerly its chief

entrance was on the main road to the village. But after the count's
father bought the building, he closed that entrance and united the

place with his own property.
The house, built of freestone, in the style of the period of Louis XV.

(it is enough to say that its exteriordecoration consisted of a stone
drapery beneath the windows, as in the colonnades of the Place Louis

XV., the flutings of which were stiff and ungainly), had on the
ground-floor a fine salon opening into a bedroom, and a dining-room

connected with a billiard-room. These rooms, lying parallel to one
another, were separated by a staircase, in front of which was a sort

of peristyle which formed an entrance-hall, on which the two suits of
rooms on either side opened. The kitchen was beneath the dining-room,

for the whole building was raised ten steps from the ground level.
By placing her own bedroom on the first floor above the ground-floor,

Madame Moreau was able to transform the chamber adjoining the salon
into a boudoir. These two rooms were richly furnished with beautiful

pieces culled from the rare old furniture of the chateau. The salon,
hung with blue and white damask, formerly the curtains of the state-

bed, was draped with ample portieres and window curtains lined with
white silk. Pictures, evidently from old panels, plant-stands, various

pretty articles of modern upholstery, handsome lamps, and a rare old
cut-glass chandelier, gave a grandiose appearance to the room. The

carpet was a Persian rug. The boudoir, wholly modern, and furnished
entirely after Madame Moreau's own taste, was arranged in imitation of

a tent, with ropes of blue silk on a gray background. The classic
divan was there, of course, with its pillows and footstools. The

plant-stands, taken care of by the head-gardener of Presles, rejoiced
the eye with their pyramids of bloom. The dining-room and billiard-

room were furnished in mahogany.
Around the house the steward's wife had laid out a beautiful garden,

carefully cultivated, which opened into the great park. Groups of
choice parks hid the offices and stables. To improve the entrance by

which visitors came to see her, she had substituted a handsome iron
gateway for the shabbyrailing, which she discarded.

The dependence in which the situation of their dwelling placed the
Moreaus, was thus adroitly concealed, and they seemed all the more

like rich and independent persons taking care of the property of a
friend, because neither the count nor the countess ever came to

Presles to take down their pretensions. Moreover, the perquisites
granted by Monsieur de Serizy allowed them to live in the midst of

that abundance which is the luxury of country life. Milk, eggs,
poultry, game, fruits, flowers, forage, vegetables, wood, the steward

and his wife used in profusion, buying absolutely nothing but
butcher's-meat, wines, and the colonial supplies required by their

life of luxury. The poultry-maid baked their bread; and of late years
Moreau had paid his butcher with pigs from the farm, after reserving

those he needed for his own use.
On one occasion, the countess, always kind and good to her former

maid, gave her, as a souvenir perhaps, a little travelling-carriage,
the fashion of which was out of date. Moreau had it repainted, and now

drove his wife about the country with two good horses which belonged
to the farm. Besides these horses, Moreau had his own saddle-horse. He

did enough farming on the count's property to keep the horses and
maintain his servants. He stacked three hundred tons of excellent hay,

but accounted for only one hundred, making use of a vague permission
once granted by the count. He kept his poultry-yard, pigeon-cotes, and

cattle at the cost of the estate, but the manure of the stables was