e tables before the customers, and then urged the men to drink.

The three other girls--there were only five of them--formed a
kind of aristocracy, and they remained with the company on the first
floor, unless they were wanted downstairs and there was nobody on the
first floor. The salon de Jupiter, where the tradesmen used to meet, was
papered in blue, and embellished with a large drawing representing Leda
and the swan. The room was reached by a winding staircase, through a
narrow door opening on the street, and above this door a lantern inclosed
in wire, such as one still sees in some towns, at the foot of the shrine
of some saint, burned all night long.

The house, which was old and damp, smelled slightly of mildew. At times
there was an odor of eau de Cologne in the passages, or sometimes from a
half-open door downstairs the noisy mirth of the common men sitting and
drinking rose to the first floor, much to the disgust of the gentlemen
who were there. Madame Tellier, who was on friendly terms with her
customers, did not leave the room, and took much interest in what was
going on in the town, and they regularly told her all the news. Her
serious conversation was a change from the ceaseless chatter of the three
women; it was a rest from the obscene jokes of those stout individuals
who every evening indulged in the commonplace debauchery of drinking a
glass of liqueur in company with common women.

The names of the girls on the first floor were Fernande, Raphaele, and
Rosa, the Jade. As the staff was limited, madame had endeavored that each
member of it should be a pattern, an epitome of the feminine type, so
that every customer might find as nearly as possible the realization of
his ideal. Fernande represented the handsome blonde; she was very tall,
rather fat, and lazy; a country girl, who could not get rid of her
freckles, and whose short, light, almost colorless, tow-like hair, like
combed-out hemp, barely covered her head.

Raphaele, who came from Marseilles, played the indispensable part of the
handsome Jewess, and was thin, with high cheekbones, which were covered
with rouge, and black hair covered with pomatum, which curled on her
forehead. Her eyes would have been handsome, if the right one had not had
a speck in it. Her Roman nose came down over a square jaw, where two
false upper teeth contrasted strangely with the bad color of the rest.

Rosa was a little roll of fat, nearly all body, with very short leg