steadily and markedly at the Countess Sabine. After which, as she

was passing in front of the imperial stand, the sight of Muffat,

looming in all his official stiffness by the side of the empress,

"Oh, how silly he looks!" she said at the top of her voice to

Vandeuvres. She was anxious to pay everything a visit. This small

parklike region, with its green lawns and groups of trees, rather

charmed her than otherwise. A vendor of ices had set up a large

buffet near the entrance gates, and beneath a rustic thatched roof a