In fact the Maître d’Hôtel, the Head Gardener, the butler and indeed most of the other men in the house were all old enough to be her grandfather.
Now into what she was finding was like a little Paradise of her own, there had arrived unexpectedly and shatteringly, the Marquis.
As she hurried to the kitchen to prepare his dinner, which she devoutly hoped would please him, she tried not to become agitated but to think quietly and calmly of what, late at night after a long journey, a gentleman who expected perfection would require.
She was quite certain that in Paris he would have had a surfeit of very rich food and probably too much pâté de foie gras.
She was not to know that the previous night not only had he had a surfeit of that dish but also of caviar from Russia, quails from Africa
