s; upon men's shoulders appeared fugitive hairs, which flew in
air, blown by warm and wandering breaths, breathed one knew not from
what feminine mouth. In front of him Fauchery saw the truant schoolboy
half lifted from his seat by passion. Curiosity led him to look at
the Count de Vandeuvres--he was extremely pale, and his lips looked
pinched--at fat Steiner, whose face was purple to the verge of apoplexy;
at Labordette, ogling away with the highly astonished air of a horse
dealer admiring a perfectly shaped mare; at Daguenet, whose ears were
blood-red and twitching with enjoyment. Then a sudden idea made him
glance behind, and he marveled at what he saw in the Muffats' box.
Behind the countess, who was white and serious as usual, the count was
sitting straight upright, with mouth agape and face mottled with red,
while close by him, in the shadow, the restless eyes of the Marquis de
Chouard had become catlike phosphorescent, full of golden sparkles. The
house was suffocating; people's very hair grew heavy on their perspiring
heads. For three hours back the breath of the multitude had filled
and heated the atmosphere with a scent of crowded humanity. Under the
swaying glare of the gas the dust clouds in mid-air had grown constantly
denser as they hung motionless beneath the chandelier. The whole house
seemed to be oscillating, to be lapsing toward dizziness in its fatigue
and excitement, full, as it was, of those drowsy midnight desires which
flutter in the recesses of the bed of passion. And Nana, in front of
this languorous public, these fifteen hundred human beings thronged and
smothered in the exhaustion and nervous exasperation which belong to the
close of a spectacle, Nana still triumphed by right of her marble flesh
and that sexual nature of hers, which was strong enough to destroy the
whole crowd of her adorers and yet sustain no injury.
The piece drew to a close. In answer to Vulcan's triumphant summons all
the Olympians defiled before the lovers with ohs and ahs of stupefaction
and gaiety. Jupiter said, "I think it is light conduct on your part,
my son, to summon us to see such a sight as this." Then a reaction took
place in favor of Venus. The chorus of cuckolds was again ushered in
by Iris and besought the master of the gods not to give effect to its
petition, for since women had lived at home, domestic life was becoming
impossible for the men: the latter preferred being deceived and happy.
That was the mora
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