Madame de la Poype, and
two or three of her friends, who were on a visit at her house,
conversed agreeably, and all feeling of winter and seclusion was
forgotten.
'At night, when I was shown into my chamber, the footman asked if I
chose to have my bed warmed. I inquired whether it was well aired;
he assured me, with a tone of integrity, that I had nothing to fear,
for "that it had not been slept in for half a year." The French are
not afraid of damp beds, but they have a great dread of catching
some infectious disease from sleeping in any bed in which a stranger
may have recently lain.
'My bedchamber at this chateau was hung with tapestry, and as the
footman assured me of the safety of my bed, he drew aside a piece of
the tapestry, which discovered a small recess in the wall that held
a grabat, in which my servant was invited to repose. My servant was
an Englishman, whose indignation nothing but want of words to
express it could have concealed; he deplored my unhappy lot; as for
himself, he declared, with a look of horror, that nothing could
induce him to go into such a pigeon-hole.
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