m, and one large table in the
middle. They pass away the time in vehement gesticulation, and talking
in a loud tone; so much of what they say is in _argot_, that the
stranger will not find it easy to comprehend them. He would think they
were talking crime or politics--not a bit of it; their talk is
altogether about their mistresses. Love and feeding make up the
existence of these beings; and we may judge of the quality of the former
by what we are about to see of the latter. A huge bowl is at last
introduced, and placed on the table in the middle of the room. At the
same time a set of basins, corresponding to the number of the guests,
are placed on the side-tables. A woman, with her nose on one side, good
eyes, and the thinnest of all possible lips, opening every now and then
to disclose the white teeth which garnish an enormous mouth, takes her
place before it. She is the presiding deity of the temple; and there is
not a man present to whom it would not be the crowning felicity of the
moment to obtain a smile from features so little used to the business of
smiling, that one wonders how they would set about it if the necessity
should ever arise. Every cap is doffed with a grim politeness peculiar
to that class of humanity, and a series of compliments fly into the face
of Madame Michel, part leveled at her eyes, and part at the laced cap,
in perfect taste, by which those eyes are shrouded. Mere Michel,
however, says nothing in return, but proceeds to stir with a thick
ladle, looking much larger than it really is, the contents of the bowl
before her. These contents are an enormous quantity of thick brown
liquid, in the midst of which swim numerous islands of vegetable matter
and a few pieces of meat. Meanwhile, a damsel, hideously ugly--but whose
ugliness is in part concealed by a neat, trim cap--makes the tour of the
room with a box of tickets, grown black by use, and numbered from one to
whatever number may be that of the company. Each of them gives four sous
to this Hebe of the place, accompanying the action with an amorous look,
which is both the habit and the duty of every Frenchman when he has
anything to do with the opposite sex, and which is not always a matter
of course, for Marie has her admirers, and has been the cause of more
than one _rixe_ in the Rue des Anglais. The tickets distributed, up
rises number one--with a joke got ready for the occasion, and a look of
earnest anxiety, as if he were going to throw for