rvel of construction, the
best customer that Charriere has.'

He spoke out loud and quite freely, right in front of the dining-room.
The garden door was slightly open, and through the crack the light
fell upon the broad red impudent face of the parasite, and the warm air
floated laden with the rich smell of the dinner which he had eaten and
was repaying in mean dirty slanders. There's for your _truffes farcies_;
there's for your _gelinottes_, and your '_chateaux_' at fifteen
shillings a glass! Danjou and he have got together on purpose to play
this popular game of running-down; and a great deal they know and a
great deal they tell. Lavaux serves the ball and Danjou returns. And the
simple Guardsman, not knowing how much to believe, tries to laugh, with
a horrid fear lest the Duchess should catch them, and is much relieved
when he hears his uncle calling him from the other end of the terrace.
The Papal Embassy shuts up early, and since his little misfortune he has
been kept strictly to hours.

'Good night, gentlemen.'

'Good luck to you, young man.'

The Nuncio is gone; now for the surprise. At a signal from the Duchess,
the author of _Roxelane_ took his place at the piano and swept his beard
over the keys as he struck two penetrating chords. Immediately at the
far end of the rooms the curtains were drawn from the door, and down the
vista of brilliant apartments, tripping along on the tips of her little
gilt slippers, came a charming brunette in the close bodice and puffed
skirts of the ballet, conducted at arm's-length by a gloomy person
with hair in rolls and a cadaverous countenance divided by a dead black
moustache. It is Dea! Dea, the folly of the hour, the fashionable toy,
accompanied by her instructor, Valere, the ballet-master at the opera.
_Roxelane_ was taken first this evening; and the girl, warm from her
triumphant performance, had come to give her dance again for the
benefit of the Duchess's Imperial guest. A more delightful surprise his
respected friend could not have devised. What more exquisite than to
have all to yourself, close to yourself, and within an inch of your
face, the pretty whirl of muslin and the panting of the fresh young
breath, and to hear the sinews of the little creature strain like the
sheets of a sail! His Highness was not alone in this opinion. The moment
the dance began the men drew together, selfishly making a close ring of
black coats and leaving the few ladies present to see w