urmuring in
dolorous tones:

"It's all over with me; my luck's always bad. It's only a week ago that
I finished paying for my little house at Juvisy. Ah, God knows what
trouble it cost me! I had to go to Lili for help! And now here's the war
declared, and the Prussians'll come and they'll burn everything. How am
I to begin again at my time of life, I should like to know?"

"Bah!" said Clarisse. "I don't care a damn about it. I shall always find
what I want."

"Certainly you will," added Simonne. "It'll be a joke. Perhaps, after
all, it'll be good biz."

And her smile hinted what she thought. Tatan Nene and Louise Violaine
were of her opinion. The former told them that she had enjoyed the most
roaring jolly good times with soldiers. Oh, they were good fellows and
would have done any mortal thing for the girls. But as the ladies had
raised their voices unduly Rose Mignon, still sitting on the chest by
the bed, silenced them with a softly whispered "Hush!" They stood quite
still at this and glanced obliquely toward the dead woman, as though
this request for silence had emanated from the very shadows of the
curtains. In the heavy, peaceful stillness which ensued, a void,
deathly stillness which made them conscious of the stiff dead body lying
stretched close by them, the cries of the mob burst forth:

"A BERLIN! A BERLIN! A BERLIN!"

But soon they forgot. Lea de Horn, who had a political salon where
former ministers of Louis Philippe were wont to indulge in delicate
epigrams, shrugged her shoulders and continued the conversation in a low
tone:

"What a mistake this war is! What a bloodthirsty piece of stupidity!"

At this Lucy forthwith took up the cudgels for the empire. She had been
the mistress of a prince of the imperial house, and its defense became a
point of family honor with her.

"Do leave them alone, my dear. We couldn't let ourselves be further
insulted! Why, this war concerns the honor of France. Oh, you know I
don't say that because of the prince. He WAS just mean! Just imagine, at
night when he was going to bed he hid his gold in his boots, and when we
played at bezique he used beans, because one day I pounced down on the
stakes for fun. But that doesn't prevent my being fair. The emperor was
right."

Lea shook her head with an air of superiority, as became a woman who was
repeating the opinions of important personages. Then raising her voice:

"This is the end of all things. They're out of their