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The narrative centers on an orderly Paris household dominated by a controlling sister and her obedient brother, whose ward, a spirited young woman married to a rakish captain, brings gaiety and recklessness. When the household parrot escapes and the couple's extravagant tastes surface, a chain of social outings, flirtations, debts, and incidents at music halls and dinners produces misunderstandings, family anxieties, and minor scandals. Through comic episodes, revelations about spending, romance, and loyalty play out among servants and relatives, culminating in reconciliations and a restoration of domestic order tempered by newly exposed truths.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.
In Chapter III, in the paragraph beginning on page 239 that begins with “But Monsieur Bouchard” there appears to be a missing word after the word “vainly.” The transcriber believes that the missing word was “trying,” but research was not able to confirm this. There are no other contemporaneous editions for comparison.