uproar. Now and then a
swimmer, standing on the roof, dived into the water, splashing the
nearest guests, who yelled like savages.

On the stream passed the flotillas of light craft, long, slender
wherries, swiftly rowed by bare-armed oarsmen, whose muscles played
beneath their bronzed skin. The women in the boats, in blue or red
flannel skirts, with umbrellas, red or blue, opened over their heads
and gleaming under the burning sun, leaned back in their chairs at
the stern of the boats, and seemed almost to float upon the water,
in motionless and slumberous pose.

The heavier boats proceeded slowly, crowded with people. A
collegian, wanting to show off, rowed like a windmill against all
the other boats, bringing the curses of their oarsmen down upon his
head, and disappearing in dismay after almost drowning two swimmers,
followed by the shouts of the crowd thronging in the great floating
cafe.

Yvette, radiantly happy, taking Servigny's arm, went into the midst
of this noisy mob. She seemed to enjoy the crowding, and stared at
the girls with a calm and gracious glance.

"Look at that one, Muscade," she said. "What pretty hair she has!
They seem to be having such fun!"

As the pianist, a boatman dressed in red with a huge straw hat,
began a waltz, Yvette grasped her companion and they danced so long
and madly that everybody looked at them. The guests, standing on the
tables, kept time with their feet; others threw glasses, and the
musician, seeming to go mad, struck the ivory keys with great bangs;
swaying his whole body and swinging his head covered with that
immense hat. Suddenly he stopped and, slipping to the deck, lay
flat, beneath his head-gear, as if dead with fatigue. A loud laugh
arose and everybody applauded.

Four friends rushed forward, as they do in cases of accident, and
lifting up their comrade, they carried him by his four limbs, after
carefully placing his great hat on his stomach. A joker following
them intoned the "De Profundis," and a procession formed and
threaded the paths of the island, guests and strollers and everyone
they met falling into line.

Yvette darted forward, delighted, laughing with her whole heart,
chatting with everybody, stirred by the movement and the noise. The
young men gazed at her, crowded against her, seeming to devour her
with their glances; and Servigny began to fear lest the adventure
should terminate badly.

The procession still kept on its way; hastening its s