How often this is so with the visions of domesticitythe detailed picture of what our home will be like; or, of life among our fellow-citizens or in society; or, again, of living in the countrythe kind of house we shall have, its surroundings, the marks of honor and respect that will be paid to us, and so on,whatever our hobby may be; chaque fou a sa marotte.

"And I have actually solicited that excellent and admirable woman, Madame Marotte, relict of the late lamented Jacques Marotte, umbrella maker, of number one hundred and two, Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, and her beautiful and accomplished niece, Mademoiselle Marie Charpentier, to honor us with their company this evening.

"And I have actually solicited that excellent and admirable woman, Madame Marotte, relict of the late lamented Jacques Marotte, umbrella maker, of number one hundred and two, Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, and her beautiful and accomplished niece, Mademoiselle Marie Charpentier, to honor us with their company this evening.

" With this, he went up to Madame Marotte, who, with her niece, had sat down on a bench under a walnut-tree close by, waiting our pleasure.

The stewed kidneys with mushrooms were provided especially for Madame Marotte; the fricandeau was selected in honor of Mam'selle Marie (had he not an innate presentiment that she loved fricandeau?); and as for the soles au gratin, he swore, in defiance of probability and all the laws of nature, that they were the very fish we had just caught in the Seine.

So Madame Marotte was carried off, bon gré, mal gré, to a dancing-booth, where gentlemen were admitted on payment of forty centimes per head, and ladies went in free.

After this rebuff (having learned, notwithstanding my friend's representations to the contrary, that a train ran from Courbevoie to Paris every half-hour up till midnight) I slipped away, leaving Müller and ma cousine in the midst of a furious flirtation, and Madame Marotte fast asleep in her corner.

" "Then what have you done with Madame Marotte and Mademoiselle Marie?" "Deposited them at their own door in the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, as was the bounden duty of a preux chevalier.

It came out one day when he was pressing me to go with him to a certain tea-party at Madame Marotte's, in the Rue St. Denis.

"Of Marie Marotte?" He nodded.

And now, to return to the point we started fromwill you go with me to Madame Marotte's tea-party to-morrow evening at eight?

Madame Marotte, as I have already mentioned more than once, lived in the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis; which, as all the world knows, is a prolongation of the Rue St. Denisjust as the Rue St. Denis was, in my time, a transpontine continuation of the old Rue de la Harpe.

It was at number One Hundred and Two in this agreeable thoroughfare that my friend's innamorata resided with her maternal aunt, the worthy relict of Monsieur Jacques Marotte, umbrella-maker, deceased.

A short cut brought us into the midst of the Rue de Faubourg St. Denis, and within a few yards of a gloomy-looking little shop with the words "Veuve Marotte" painted up over the window, and a huge red and white umbrella dangling over the door.

" Madame Marotte had by this time supplied all her guests with tea and coffee, while Monsieur Philomène went round with the cakes and bread and butter.

"We hope we have another bachelor by-and-by," said Madame Marotte, addressing herself to the young ladies, who looked down and giggled.

Madame Marotte, deaf as a post and serenely unconscious, smiled, nodded, and said "Ah, yes, yesdidn't I tell you so?" "Monsieur Dorinet has, I fear, asked an indiscreet question," said Müller, boiling over with jealousy.

And now, hospitably anxious that each of her guests should have a chance of achieving distinction, Madame Marotte invited Mdlle.

"What is it you require, ma chère demoiselle?" asked Madame Marotte.

And now, the stage being cleared, the audience placed, and Monsieur Dorinet provided with a volume of Corneille, Mademoiselle Honoria proceeded to drape herself in an old red shawl belonging to Madame Marotte.

cries Madame Marotte in a shrill whisper. ...

Madame Marotte groans aloud in an agony of apprehension "Ah, mon Dieu!"

" yelled Madame Marotte.

" Madame Marotte, meanwhile, had introduced M. Lenoir to the two Conservatoire pupils and their mammas; Monsieur Dorinet had proposed some "petits jeux;" and Monsieur Philomène was helping him to re-arrange the chairsthis time in a circle.

" We were just about to take our places when Madame Marotte seized the opportunity to introduce Müller and myself to M. Lenoir.