children and young men were
offering assistance, or dashing about amidst a din of voices. A little
further on, a booth, with hot fried potatoes cut in slices, had a crowd
round it.

They were by this time near the great streets of booths, up and down
which the majority of the people strolled; some buying articles long
wished for, but unobtainable at any other time; some eagerly visiting
every show in succession; other shooting at targets for prizes--clay
pipes and piles of thin hardbake in the shape of a cornucopia, five to
each successful shot, or bags of nuts.

Julien Matou met them at the shooting range, which was at the first
booth. He wanted Estelle to walk with him, that he might show her all
the sights that interested him. Jack, however, would not let go of her
hand, and the four had to walk more or less abreast when the pressure of
the passers-by permitted. He did not object to plunging into all the fun
of the fair in a moderate way. There were the mountebanks, and the
dancers, and the driving team of fleas and the little dogs that acted a
play.

Finally, to Estelle's delight, they reached the circus. Here Jack
secured good seats, and for the next hour she and Julien were enchanted
with the riding, the driving, the clown; and lastly the performance of
the great elephant which shot the gun--a mortar which produced an
explosion quite startling for its size. This wound up the entertainment,
though Estelle would have liked it to continue indefinitely. She felt
quite depressed as she followed the rest of the crowd leaving the
marquee, and heard the men proclaiming that the next performance began
at eight o'clock.

She had been charmed with everything. As they forced their way through
the noisy crew, and Jack saw that the streets of booths were full of an
increasing number of persons more or less excited, he proposed to take
the other way back. Passing between two booths, they came out at the
back of the rows, where it was comparatively quiet. It gave them greater
space to move, but it was not pleasant walking. Every now and then they
came across piles of dingy straw, or a bundle of old rags, or odds and
ends of soiled draperies, which had become almost too worn out to use,
or wooden cases which had seen many journeys, and were overflowing with
shavings and paper. This was indeed a contrast to the life and
brightness on the other side.

Here was a man who had sold them some chocolates in the most smiling,
obse