he officers, and even the privates,
met some monstrous-looking creature, some giantess puffed out with fat,
whether she were in velvet or in rags, they would invariably exclaim,
"There goes one to Petticoat Burle's taste!" Thus Melanie, with her
opulent presence, quite conquered him. He was lost--quite wrecked. In
less than a fortnight he had fallen to vacuous imbecility. With much the
expression of a whipped hound in the tiny sunken eyes which lighted
up his bloated face, he was incessantly watching the widow in mute
adoration before her masculine features and stubby hair. For fear
that he might be dismissed, he put up with the presence of the other
gentlemen of the divan and spent his pay in the place down to the last
copper. A sergeant reviewed the situation in one sentence: "Petticoat
Burle is done for; he's a buried man!"

It was nearly ten o'clock when Major Laguitte furiously flung the door
of the cafe open. For a moment those inside could see the deluged square
transformed into a dark sea of liquid mud, bubbling under the terrible
downpour. The major, now soaked to the skin and leaving a stream behind
him, strode up to the small counter where Phrosine was reading a novel.

"You little wretch," he yelled, "you have dared to gammon an officer;
you deserve--"

And then he lifted his hand as if to deal a blow such as would have
felled an ox. The little maid shrank back, terrified, while the amazed
domino players looked, openmouthed. However, the major did not linger
there--he pushed the divan door open and appeared before Melanie and
Burle just as the widow was playfully making the captain sip his grog
in small spoonfuls, as if she were feeding a pet canary. Only the
ex-magistrate and the chemist had come that evening, and they had
retired early in a melancholy frame of mind. Then Melanie, being in
want of three hundred francs for the morrow, had taken advantage of the
opportunity to cajole the captain.

"Come." she said, "open your mouth; ain't it nice, you greedy
piggy-wiggy?"

Burle, flushing scarlet, with glazed eyes and sunken figure, was sucking
the spoon with an air of intense enjoyment.

"Good heavens!" roared the major from the threshold. "You now play
tricks on me, do you? I'm sent to the roundabout and told that you
never came here, and yet all the while here you are, addling your silly
brains."

Burle shuddered, pushing the grog away, while Melanie stepped angrily
in front of him as if to shield