gown and green silk petticoat; and she shook her head to rattle the
pendants hanging from the long pins thrust through her hair. At last
there burst from her lips a rush of hasty words. Despite her seeming
demureness, she had seen everything, heard everything, and remembered
everything; and she now made ample amends for her former assumed
dignity, silence, and indifference.

"Do you know, mamma, it was an old fellow with a grey beard who made
Punch move his arms and legs? I saw him well enough when the curtain
was drawn aside. Yes, and the little boy Guiraud began to cry. How
stupid of him, wasn't it? They told him the policeman would come and
put some water in his soup; and at last they had to carry him off, for
he wouldn't stop crying. And at lunch, too, Marguerite stained her
milkmaid's dress all over with jam. Her mamma wiped it off and said to
her: 'Oh, you dirty girl!' She even had a lot of it in her hair. I
never opened my mouth, but it did amuse me to see them all rush at the
cakes! Were they not bad-mannered, mamma dear?"

She paused for a few seconds, absorbed in some reminiscence, and then
asked, with a thoughtful air: "I say, mamma, did you eat any of those
yellow cakes with white cream inside? Oh! they were nice! they were
nice! I kept the dish beside me the whole time."

Helene was not listening to this childish chatter. But Jeanne talked
to relieve her excited brain. She launched out again, giving the
minutest details about the ball, and investing each little incident
with the greatest importance.

"You did not see that my waistband came undone just as we began
dancing. A lady, whose name I don't know, pinned it up for me. So I
said to her: 'Madame, I thank you very much.' But while I was dancing
with Lucien the pin ran into him, and he asked me: 'What have you got
in front of you that pricks me so?' Of course I knew nothing about it,
and told him I had nothing there to prick him. However, Pauline came
and put the pin in its proper place. Ah! but you've no idea how they
pushed each other about; and one great stupid of a boy gave Sophie a
blow on the back which made her fall. The Levasseur girls jumped about
with their feet close together. I am pretty certain that isn't the way
to dance. But the best of it all came at the end. You weren't there;
so you can't know. We all took one another by the arms, and then
whirled round; it was comical enough to make one die laughing.
Besides, some of the big gentl