But flatterers and petitioners were
already after the triumphant young master. Three friends rose up and
noisily saluted him from afar. A lady became smilingly contemplative
when her husband had whispered his name in her ear. And the tall,
thin fellow, the artist whose picture had been badly hung, and who had
pursued him since the morning, as enraged as ever, left a table where he
was seated at the further end of the buffet, and again hurried forward
to complain, imperatively demanding 'the line' at once.

'Oh! go to the deuce!' at last cried Fagerolles, his patience and
amiability exhausted. And he added, when the other had gone off,
mumbling some indistinct threats: 'It's true; a fellow does all he can
to be obliging, but those chaps would drive one mad! All of them on
the "line"! leagues of "line" then! Ah! what a business it is to be a
committee-man! One wears out one's legs, and one only reaps hatred as
reward.'

Claude, who was looking at him with his oppressed air, seemed to wake up
for a moment, and murmured:

'I wrote to you; I wanted to go and see you to thank you. Bongrand told
me about all the trouble you had. So thanks again.'

But Fagerolles hastily broke in:

'Tut, tut! I certainly owed that much to our old friendship. It's I who
am delighted to have given you any pleasure.'

He showed the embarrassment which always came upon him in presence of
the acknowledged master of his youth, that kind of humility which filled
him perforce when he was with the man whose mute disdain, even at this
moment, sufficed to spoil all his triumph.

'Your picture is very good,' slowly added Claude, who wished to be
kind-hearted and generous.

This simple praise made Fagerolles' heart swell with exaggerated,
irresistible emotion, springing he knew not whence; and this rascal, who
believed in nothing, who was usually so proficient in humbug, answered
in a shaky voice:

'Ah! my dear fellow, ah! it's very kind of you to tell me that!'

Sandoz had at last obtained two cups of coffee, and as the waiter had
forgotten to bring any sugar, he had to content himself with some pieces
which a party had left on an adjoining table. A few tables, indeed,
had now become vacant, but the general freedom had increased, and one
woman's laughter rang out so loudly that every head turned round. The
men were smoking, and a bluish cloud slowly rose above the straggling
tablecloths, stained by wine and littered with dirty plates and dishes