t,
and such a fine girl too! Mignon sighed and looked relieved, for at last
Rose would come down. A chill fell on the company. Fontan, meditating a
tragic role, had assumed a look of woe and was drawing down the corners
of his mouth and rolling his eyes askance, while Fauchery chewed his
cigar nervously, for despite his cheap journalistic chaff he was really
touched. Nevertheless, the two women continued to give vent to their
feelings of surprise. The last time Lucy had seen her was at the Gaite;
Blanche, too, had seen her in Melusine. Oh, how stunning it was, my
dear, when she appeared in the depths of the crystal grot! The gentlemen
remembered the occasion perfectly. Fontan had played the Prince
Cocorico. And their memories once stirred up, they launched into
interminable particulars. How ripping she looked with that rich coloring
of hers in the crystal grot! Didn't she, now? She didn't say a word:
the authors had even deprived her of a line or two, because it was
superfluous. No, never a word! It was grander that way, and she drove
her public wild by simply showing herself. You wouldn't find another
body like hers! Such shoulders as she had, and such legs and such a
figure! Strange that she should be dead! You know, above her tights she
had nothing on but a golden girdle which hardly concealed her behind and
in front. All round her the grotto, which was entirely of glass, shone
like day. Cascades of diamonds were flowing down; strings of brilliant
pearls glistened among the stalactites in the vault overhead, and amid
the transparent atmosphere and flowing fountain water, which was crossed
by a wide ray of electric light, she gleamed like the sun with that
flamelike skin and hair of hers. Paris would always picture her
thus--would see her shining high up among crystal glass like the
good God Himself. No, it was too stupid to let herself die under such
conditions! She must be looking pretty by this time in that room up
there!

"And what a lot of pleasures bloody well wasted!" said Mignon in
melancholy tones, as became a man who did not like to see good and
useful things lost.

He sounded Lucy and Caroline in order to find out if they were going up
after all. Of course they were going up; their curiosity had increased.
Just then Blanche arrived, out of breath and much exasperated at the way
the crowds were blocking the pavement, and when she heard the news
there was a fresh outburst of exclamations, and with a great r