, soothed
by the heat of the room, had a few moments' pleasant lapse of
consciousness.

He was roused by the entrance of a noisy party of three. These were
strangers to him, and when they had mentioned their names and learned
his, they sat down at the other end of the table and talked among
themselves. They were followed by a couple of men known to Maurice by
sight. One, an Italian, a stout, animated man, with prominent jet-black
eyes and huge white teeth, was a fellow-pupil of Schilsky's, and a
violinist of repute, notwithstanding the size and fleshiness of his
hands, which were out of all proportion to the delicate build of his
instrument. The other was a slender youth of fantastic appearance. He
wore a long, old-fashioned overcoat, which reached to his heels, and
was moulded to a shapely waist; on his fingers were numerous rings; his
bushy hair was scented and thickly curled, his face painted and
pencilled like a woman's. He did not sit down, but, returning to the
public room, leaned over the counter and talked to the BUFFETDAME, in a
tone which had nothing in common with Furst's hearty familiarity.

Next came a couple of Americans, loud, self-assertive, careless of
dress and convention; close behind them still another group, and at its
heels, Dove. The latter entered the room with an apologetic air, and on
sitting down at the head of the table, next Maurice, mentioned at once
that, at heart, he was not partial to this kind of thing, and was only
there because he believed the present to be an exceptional occasion:
who knew but what, in after years, he might not be proud to claim
having, made one of the party on this particular evening?--the plain
truth being that Schilsky was little popular with his own sex, and, in
consequence of the difficulty of beating up a round dozen of men, Furst
had been forced to be very pressing in his invitations, to have
recourse to bribes and promises, or, as in the case of Dove, to
stimulating the imagination. The majority of the guests present were
not particular who paid for their drink, provided they got it.

At Krafft's entry, a stifled laugh went round. To judge from his
appearance, he had not been in bed the previous night: sleep seemed to
hang on his red and sunken eyelids; his hands and face were dirty, and
when he took off his coat, which he had worn turned up at the neck, it
was seen that he had either lost or forgotten his collar. Shirt and
waistcoat were insufficiently bu