Go back to your wife, or it's all over and I shall grow angry!" The Countess Sabine had been anxious that her daughter's wedding contract should be signed on a Tuesday in order that the renovated house, where the paint was still scarcely dry, might be reopened with a grand entertainment.

Five hundred invitations had been issued to people in all kinds of sets.

On the morning of the great day the upholsterers were still nailing up hangings, and toward nine at night, just when the lusters were going to be lit, the architect, accompanied by the eager and interested countess, was given his final orders.
It was one of those spring festivities which have a delicate charm of their own.

Owing to the warmth of the June nights, it had become possible to open the two doors of the great drawing room and to extend the dancing floor to the sanded paths of the garden.

When the first guests arrived and were welcomed at the door by the count and the countess they were positively dazzled.