n the next table, with our
compliments. This he did, and the explosion of courtesy and
felicitations that followed was terrific. It flung us all to our feet,
bowing and smiling. We clinked glasses, each of us clinking six others;
we said "_Vive la France!_" and "_Vive l'Angleterre_." We tried to
assume expressions consonant with the finest types of our respective
nations. I felt everything that was noblest in the English character
rushing to my cheeks; everything that was most gallant and spirited in
the French temperament suffused the face of my friend until I saw
nothing for him but instant apoplexy. Meanwhile he grasped my hand in
his, which was very puffy and warm, and again thanked me for all that
_ces braves Anglais_ had done to save Paris and _la belle France_.

Down we all sat again, and I whispered to our party that perhaps this
was enough and we had better creep away. But there was more in store.
Before the bill could be made out--never a very swift matter at this
house--I caught sight of a portent and knew the worst. I saw a waiter
entering the room with a tray on which was a bottle of champagne and
seven glasses. My heart sank, for if there is one thing I cannot do, it
is to drink the sweet champagne so dear to the bourgeois palate. And
after the old _fine_, not before it! To the French mind these
irregularities are nothing; but to me, to us....

There however it was, and, in a moment, the genial enthusiast was again
on his feet. Would we not join them, he asked, in drinking to the good
health and success of the Allies in a glass of champagne? Of course we
would. We were all on our feet again, all clinking glasses again, all
crying "_Vive la France!_" "_Vive l'Angleterre!_" to which we added, "_A
bas les Allemands!_" all shaking hands and looking our best, exactly as
before. But this time there was no following national segregation, but
we sat down in three animated groups and talked as though a ban against
social intercourse in operation for years had suddenly been lifted. The
room buzzed. We were introduced one by one to Madame, who not only was
my friend's wife, but, he told us proudly, helped in his business,
whatever that might be; and Madame, on closer inspection, turned out to
be one of the capable but somewhat hard French women of her class, with
a suggestion somewhere about the mouth that she had doubts as to whether
the champagne had been quite a necessary expense--whether things had not
gone well