does he dance like that at his age?"

She shrugged her shoulders and turned red from the anger which was slowly
rising within her and she cried out:

"Ah! yes, why? So that the people will think him young under his mask; so
that the women will still take him for a young dandy and whisper nasty
things into his ears; so that he can rub up against all their dirty
skins, with their perfumes and powders and cosmetics. Ah! it's a fine
business! What a life I have had for the last forty years! But we must
first get him to bed, so that he may have no ill effects. Would you mind
helping me? When he is like that I can't do anything with him alone."

The old man was sitting on his bed, with a tipsy look, his long white
hair falling over his face. His companion looked at him with tender yet
indignant eyes. She continued:

"Just see the fine head he has for his age, and yet he has to go and
disguise himself in order to make people think that he is young. It's a
perfect shame! Really, he has a fine head, monsieur! Wait, I'll show it
to you before putting him to bed."

She went to a table on which stood the washbasin a pitcher of water, soap
and a comb and brush. She took the brush, returned to the bed and pushed
back the drunkard's tangled hair. In a few seconds she made him look like
a model fit for a great painter, with his long white locks flowing on his
neck. Then she stepped back in order to observe him, saying: "There!
Isn't he fine for his age?"

"Very," agreed the doctor, who was beginning to be highly amused.

She added: "And if you had known him when he was twenty-five! But we must
get him to bed, otherwise the drink will make him sick. Do you mind
drawing off that sleeve? Higher-like that-that's right. Now the trousers.
Wait, I will take his shoes off--that's right. Now, hold him upright
while I open the bed. There--let us put him in. If you think that he
is going to disturb himself when it is time for me to get in you are
mistaken. I have to find a little corner any place I can. That doesn't
bother him! Bah! You old pleasure seeker!"

As soon as he felt himself stretched out in his sheets the old man closed
his eyes, opened them closed them again, and over his whole face appeared
an energetic resolve to sleep. The doctor examined him with an
ever-increasing interest and asked: "Does he go to all the fancy balls
and try to be a young man?" "To all of them, monsieur, and he comes back
to me in the morning in a deplo