"The Bourgeois Philibert has the most perfect manner of any
gentleman in New France," was the remark of the Lady de Tilly to
Amelie, as he left them again to receive other guests. "They say he
can be rough and imperious sometimes to those he dislikes, but to
his friends and strangers, and especially to ladies, no breath of
spring can be more gentle and balmy." Amelie assented with a mental
reservation in the depths of her dark eyes, and in the dimple that
flashed upon her cheek as she suppressed the utterance of a pleasant
fancy in reply to her aunt.
Pierre conducted the ladies to the great drawing-room, which was
already filled with company, who overwhelmed Amelie and her aunt
with the vivacity of their greeting.
In a fine shady grove at a short distance from the house, a row of
tables was set for the entertainment of several hundreds of the
hardy dependents of the Bourgeois; for while feasting the rich the
Bourgeois would not forget his poorer friends, and perhaps his most
exquisite satisfaction was in the unrestrained enjoyment of his
hospitality by the crowd of happy, hungry fellows and their
families, who, under the direction of his chief factor, filled the
tables from end to end, and made the park resound with songs and
merriment--fellows of infinite gaiety, with appetites of Gargantuas
and a capacity for good liquors that reminded one of the tubs of the
Danaides.
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