Volume VI Part 35 (2/2)

Rival greatly pleased the ladies He was really a handsoraceful than any of those who had preceded hiing, a certain fashi+onable elegance which pleased people, and contrasted with the energetic, but more commonplace style of his adversary ”One can perceive the well-bred man at once,” was the remark

He scored the last hit, and was applauded

But for soular noise on the floor above had disturbed the spectators It was a loud trauests who had not been able to get down into the cellar were no doubt a staircase fiftyterrible Cries of ”More air,” ”So to drink,” were heard

The sa in a shrill tone that rose above the eat, lemonade, beer” Rivalcostuht,” said he, and made his way to the staircase

But all coround floor was cut off It would have been as easy to have pierced the ceiling as to have traversed the human wall piled up on the stairs

Rival called out: ”Send down some ices for the ladies” Fifty voices called out: ”Soth lasses, the refresh been snatched on the way

A loud voice shouted: ”We are suffocating down here Get it over and let us be off” Another cried out: ”The collection” And the whole of the public, gasping, but good-humored all the same, repeated: ”The collection, the collection”

Six ladies began to pass along between the seats, and the sound of s could be heard

Du Roy pointed out the celebrities to Madame Walter There were reat newspapers, the old-established newspapers, which looked down upon the _Vie Francaise_ with a certain reserve, the fruit of their experience They had witnessed the death of soof a suspicious partnershi+p, and crushed by the fall of a enerally men with a taste for sport; a poet as also a enerally, and a nuners

Someone called out: ”Good-day,his excuses to the ladies, Du Roy hastened to shake hands with hi fellow Vaudrec is! How thoroughly blood tells in hiued, and her bosoht the eye of Du Roy Frolance, which lighted upon him, and was at once averted, and he said to hiht her, too?”

The ladies who had been collecting passed to their seats, their bags full of gold and silver, and a fresh placard was hung in front of the platfores resumed their seats, and the public waited expectantly

Tohts, a very short petticoat half-way to the knee, and a plastron so padded above the bosoed the and pretty They smiled as they saluted the spectators, and were loudly applauded They fell on guard, aallantries and whispered jokes An aes, who approved the hits with a low ”bravo” The public warmly appreciated this bout, and testified thisthethe woraceful indecency, naughty elegance, ers, and couplets froed a thrill of pleasure ran through the public The one who turned her back to the seats, a plump back, caused eyes and mouths to open, and it was not the play of her wrist that was most closely scanned They were frantically applauded

A bout with swords followed, but no one looked at it, for the attention of all was occupied by as going on overhead For soed across the floor, as though ress Then all at once the notes of a piano were heard, and the rhyth in cadence was distinctly audible The people above had treated the able to see anything A loud laugh broke out at first a saloon, and then a wish for a dance being aroused a the ladies, they ceased to pay attention to as taking place on the platforan to chatter out loud

This notion of a ball got up by the late-co themselves nicely, and it must be much better up there

But t couard in such masterly style that all eyes followed their ed and recovered theth, such certainty, such sobriety in action, such correctness in attitude, such norant were surprised and charmed Their calm promptness, their skilled suppleness, their rapid motions, so nicely timed that they appeared slow, attracted and captivated the eye by their power of perfection The public felt that they were looking at soreat artists in their own profession were showing theht-out science and physical ability that it was possible for two masters to put forth No one spoke now, so closely were they watched Then, when they shook hands after the last hit, shouts of bravoes broke out People staent and Ravignac

The excitable grew quarrelsos for a row They would have challenged one another on account of a smile Those who had never held a foil in their hand sketched attacks and parries with their canes

But by degrees the croorked up the little staircase At last they would be able to get sonation when they found that those who had got up the ball had stripped the refresh that it was very iether two hundred people and not show thene, syrup, or beer left; not a sweeted, swept away everything These details were related by the servants, who pulled long faces to hide their ientleh to make themselves ill” It was like the story of the survivors after the sack of a captured town

There was nothing left but to depart Gentleiven at the collection; they were indignant that those upstairs should have feasted without paying anything The lady patronesses had collected upwards of three thousand francs All expenses paid, there remained two hundred and twenty for the orphans of the Sixth Arrondisse the Walter family, waited for his landau As he drove back with theht her caressing and fugitive glance, which see,” and sarded women, for Madame de Marelle, since the recommencement of their amour, seemed frantically in love with hi for hi-room

”I have so into a complication France may very likely send out an expeditionary force within a few months At all events, the opportunity will be taken of it to upset the Ministry, and Laroche-Mathieu will profit by this to get hold of the portfolio of foreign affairs”

Du Roy, to tease his wife, pretended not to believe anything of the kind They would never be ain But she shrugged her shoulders i: ”But I tell you yes, I tell you yes You don't understand that it is a matter of money Now-a-days, in political complications we must not ask: 'Who is the woman?' but 'What is the business?'”

He murmured ”Bah!” in a conte irritated, exclaimed: ”You are just as stupid as Forestier”

She wished to wound hier But he smiled, and replied: ”As that cuckold of a Forestier?”