es by with the rustle of a bird's wing,--then a short
sharp little blow is heard, the target is hit, always.

At nightfall, when Chrysantheme has gone up to Diou-djen-dji, we
cross, Yves and myself, the European concession, on our way to the
ship, to take up our watch till the following day. The cosmopolitan
quarter exhaling an odor of absinthe, is dressed up with flags, and
squibs are being fired off in honor of France. Long lines of djins
pass by, dragging as fast as their naked legs can carry them, the crew
of the _Triomphante_, who are shouting and fanning themselves. The
"Marseillaise" is heard everywhere; English sailors are singing it,
gutturally with a dull and slow cadence like their own "God Save." In
all the American bars, grinding organs are hammering it with many an
odious variation and flourish, in order to attract our men.

* * * * *

Just one funny recollection comes back to me of that evening. On our
return, we had by mistake got into a street inhabited by a multitude
of ladies of doubtful reputation. I can still see that big fellow
Yves, struggling with a whole band of tiny little mousmes of some
twelve or fifteen years of age, who barely reached up to his waist,
and were pulling him by the sleeves, anxious to lead him astray.
Astonished and indignant he repeated as he extricated himself from
their clutches: "Oh, this is too much!" So shocked was he at seeing
such mere babies, so young, so tiny, already so brazen and shameless.

XII.

_July 18th_.

There are now four of us, four officers of my ship, married like
myself, and inhabiting the slopes of the same suburb. It is quite an
ordinary occurrence, and is arranged without difficulties, mystery or
danger, through the negotiations of the same M. Kangourou.

As a matter of course, we are on visiting terms with all these ladies.

First there is our very merry neighbor Madame Campanule, who is little
Charles N----'s wife; then Madame Jonquille, who is even merrier than
Campanule, like a young bird and the daintiest fairy of the whole lot:
she has married X----, a fair northerner who adores her; they are a
loverlike and inseparable pair, the only one that will probably weep
when the hour of parting comes. Then Sikou-San with Doctor Y----; and
lastly the midshipman Z---- with the tiny Madame Touki-San, no taller
than a boot: thirteen years old at the outside and already a regular
woman, full of her own importa