bjects are
sometimes projected on an inebriated brain, in sharp contrast to its own
obscure imaginings, Valentin found an inkstand and a table-napkin, with
the quickness of a monkey, repeating all the time:

"Let us measure it! Let us measure it!"

"All right," said Emile; "let us measure it!"

The two friends spread out the table-napkin and laid the Magic Skin upon
it. As Emile's hand appeared to be steadier than Raphael's, he drew a
line with pen and ink round the talisman, while his friend said:

"I wished for an income of two hundred thousand livres, didn't I? Well,
when that comes, you will observe a mighty diminution of my chagrin."

"Yes--now go to sleep. Shall I make you comfortable on that sofa? Now
then, are you all right?"

"Yes, my nursling of the press. You shall amuse me; you shall drive
the flies away from me. The friend of adversity should be the friend of
prosperity. So I will give you some Hava--na--cig----"

"Come, now, sleep. Sleep off your gold, you millionaire!"

"You! sleep off your paragraphs! Good-night! Say good-night to
Nebuchadnezzar!--Love! Wine! France!--glory and tr--treas----"

Very soon the snorings of the two friends were added to the music with
which the rooms resounded--an ineffectual concert! The lights went out
one by one, their crystal sconces cracking in the final flare. Night
threw dark shadows over this prolonged revelry, in which Raphael's
narrative had been a second orgy of speech, of words without ideas, of
ideas for which words had often been lacking.

Towards noon, next day, the fair Aquilina bestirred herself. She yawned
wearily. She had slept with her head upon a painted velvet footstool,
and her cheeks were mottled over by contact with the surface. Her
movement awoke Euphrasia, who suddenly sprang up with a hoarse cry; her
pretty face, that had been so fresh and fair in the evening, was sallow
now and pallid; she looked like a candidate for the hospital. The rest
awoke also by degrees, with portentous groanings, to feel themselves
over in every stiffened limb, and to experience the infinite varieties
of weariness that weighed upon them.

A servant came in to throw back the shutters and open the windows.
There they all stood, brought back to consciousness by the warm rays
of sunlight that shone upon the sleepers' heads. Their movements during
slumber had disordered the elaborately arranged hair and toilettes of
the women. They presented a ghastly spectacle in