sappeared in a cloud of muslin, which looked like
whipped cream, while the lads, who looked like embryo waiters in a
_cafe_, and whose heads shone with pomatum, walked with their legs
apart, so as not to get any dust or dirt onto their black trousers.

It was something for the family to be proud of, when a large number of
relations, who had come from a distance, surrounded the child, and,
consequently, the carpenter's triumph was complete.

Madame Tellier's regiment, with its mistress at its head, followed
Constance; her father gave his arm to his sister, her mother walked by
the side of Raphaele, Fernande, with Rosa and the two pumps together,
and thus they walked majestically through the village, like a general's
staff in full uniform, while the effect on the village was startling.

At the school, the girls arranged themselves under the Sister of Mercy,
and the boys under the schoolmaster, and they started off, singing a
hymn as they went. The boys led the way, in two files, between the two
rows of vehicles, from which the horses had been taken out, and the
girls followed in the same order; and as all the people in the village
had given the town ladies the precedence out of politeness, they came
immediately behind the girls, and lengthened the double line of the
procession still more, three on the right and three on the left, while
their dresses were as striking as a bouquet in fireworks.

When they went into the church, the congregation grew quite excited.
They pressed against each other, they turned round, they jostled one
another in order to see, and some of the devout ones spoke almost aloud,
as they were so astonished at the sight of those ladies whose dresses
were more trimmed than the priest's chasuble.

The Mayor offered them his pew, the first one on the right, close to the
choir, and Madame Tellier sat there with her sister-in-law, Fernande and
Raphaele, Rosa _the Jade_, and the two pumps occupied the second seat,
in company with the carpenter.

The choir was full of kneeling children, the girls on one side, and the
boys on the other, and the long wax tapers which they held looked like
lances, pointing in all directions, and three men were standing in front
of the lectern, singing as loud as they could.

They prolonged the syllables of the sonorous Latin indefinitely,
holding onto _Amens_ with interminable _a--a's_, while the serpent of
the organ kept up its monotorious, long drawn out notes, which tha