heated atmosphere, heavy
with the fumes of the previous night of revelry.

Accustomed as they were to their life, many of the girls thought of
other days and other wakings; pure and innocent days when they looked
out and saw the roses and honeysuckle about the casement, and the fresh
countryside without enraptured by the glad music of the skylark; while
earth lay in mists, lighted by the dawn, and in all the glittering
radiance of dew. Others imagined the family breakfast, the father and
children round the table, the innocent laughter, the unspeakable charm
that pervaded it all, the simple hearts and their meal as simple.

An artist mused upon his quiet studio, on his statue in its severe
beauty, and the graceful model who was waiting for him. A young man
recollected a lawsuit on which the fortunes of a family hung, and an
important transaction that needed his presence. The scholar regretted
his study and that noble work that called for him. Emile appeared just
then as smiling, blooming, and fresh as the smartest assistant in a
fashionable shop.

"You are all as ugly as bailiffs. You won't be fit for anything to-day,
so this day is lost, and I vote for breakfast."

At this Taillefer went out to give some orders. The women went languidly
up to the mirrors to set their toilettes in order. Each one shook
herself. The wilder sort lectured the steadier ones. The courtesans made
fun of those who looked unable to continue the boisterous festivity;
but these wan forms revived all at once, stood in groups, and talked
and smiled. Some servants quickly and adroitly set the furniture and
everything else in its place, and a magnificent breakfast was got ready.

The guests hurried into the dining-room. Everything there bore indelible
marks of yesterday's excess, it is true, but there were at any rate some
traces of ordinary, rational existence, such traces as may be found in a
sick man's dying struggles. And so the revelry was laid away and buried,
like carnival of a Shrove Tuesday, by masks wearied out with dancing,
drunk with drunkenness, and quite ready to be persuaded of the pleasures
of lassitude, lest they should be forced to admit their exhaustion.

As soon as these bold spirits surrounded the capitalist's
breakfast-table, Cardot appeared. He had left the rest to make a night
of it after the dinner, and finished the evening after his own fashion
in the retirement of domestic life. Just now a sweet smile wandered over
hi