with enthusiastic
shouts; there were fireworks, when she was obliged to set light to the
first rocket, and balls at which she astonished those worthy people by
her affability. And when they left, three little girls dressed in white,
as if they were going to be confirmed, came onto the platform and
recited some complimentary verses to her while the band played the
_Marseillaise_, the women waved their pocket-handkerchiefs, and the men
their hats, and leaning out of the carriage window, looking charming in
her traveling costume, with a smile on her lips, and with moist eyes, as
was fitting at such a pathetic leave-taking, actress as she was, with a
sudden and childlike gesture, she blew kisses to them from the tips of
her fingers, and said:

"Good-bye, my friends, good-bye, only for the present; I shall never
forget you!"

The deputy, who was also very effusive, had invited his principal
supporters to come and see him in Paris as there were plenty of
excursion trains. They all took him at his word, and Rulhiere was
obliged to invite them all to dinner.

In order to avoid any possible mishaps, he gave his wife a foretaste of
their guests. He told her that they were rather noisy, talkative, and
unpolished, and that they would, no doubt, astonish her by their manners
and their accent, but that, as they had great influence, and were
excellent men, they deserved a good reception. It was a very useful
precaution, for when they came into the drawing-room in their new
clothes, expanding with pleasure, and with their hair pomatumed as if
they had been going to a country wedding, they felt inclined to fall
down before the new Madame Rulhiere to whom the deputy introduced them,
and who seemed to be perfectly at home there.

At first they were embarrassed, felt uncomfortable and out of place, did
not know what to say, and had to seek their words; they buttoned and
unbuttoned their gloves, answered her questions at random, and racked
their brains to discover the solution of the enigma. Captain Mouredus
looked at the fire, with the fixed gaze of a somnambulist, Marius
Barbaste scratched his fingers mechanically, while the three others, the
factory manager, Casemajel, Roquetton, the lawyer, and Dustugue, the
hotel proprietor, looked at Rulhiere anxiously.

The lawyer was the first to recover himself. He got up from his arm
chair laughing heartily, dug the deputy in the ribs with his elbow, and
said:

"I understand it all, I unde