told she looked charming in it, which was the truth: but it didn't seem to charm Madame Bourcet, when Fifi finally presented herself.
Madame Bourcet was a small, obstinate, kindly, narrow-minded woman, who went about measuring the universe with her own tape line. Louis Bourcet proved to be Madame Bourcet in trousers. Fifi thought, if Louis were dressed up in his aunt's petticoats and Madame Bourcet were to put on Louis' trousers, nobody could tell them apart.
Before this interesting youth was presented to Fifi, Madame Bourcet informed her that Louis was the most correct young advocate in Paris and had not a fault. After this promising introduction, Fifi hated Louis at first sight; but with that overwhelming sense of strangeness and of being led blindly toward an unknown fate, Fifi gave no sign of dislike toward the most correct young advocate in Paris, and the man without a fault.
As for Louis Bourcet, he thought that a discerning Providence had dropped Fifi, with her hundred thousand francs, into his mouth, as it were. He knew that she had been an actress in a poor little theater; but she was a Chiaramonti, her grand-
