with the waiters and had her eye upon every corner of
the great room.

She was really pretty only from five till seven in the afternoon--that
being the time at which Alphonse invariably visited the cafe. Then
her eyes never left him; she got a fresher color, her mouth was always
trembling into a smile, and her movements became somewhat nervous. That
was the only time of the day when she was ever known to give a random
answer or to make a mistake in the accounts; and the waiters tittered
and nudged each other.

For it was generally thought that she had formerly had relations with
Alphonse, and some would even have it that she was still his mistress.

She herself best knew how matters stood; but it was impossible to be
angry with Monsieur Alphonse. She was well aware that he cared no more
for her than for twenty others; that she had lost him--nay, that he had
never really been hers. And yet her eyes besought a friendly look, and
when he left the cafe without sending her a confidential greeting, it
seemed as though she suddenly faded, and the waiters said to each other:
"Look at Madame; she is gray to-night"----Over at the windows it
was still light enough to read the papers; a couple of young men were
amusing themselves with watching the crowds which streamed past. Seen
through the great plate-glass windows, the busy forms gliding past one
another in the dense, wet, rainy air looked like fish in an aquarium.
Farther back in the cafe, and over the billiard-tables, the gas was
lighted. Alphonse was playing with a couple of friends.

He had been to the buffet and greeted Madame Virginie, and she, who had
long noticed how Alphonse was growing paler day by day, had--half in
jest, half in anxiety--reproached him with his thoughtless life.

Alphonse answered with a poor joke and asked for absinthe.

How she hated those light ladies of the ballet and the opera who enticed
Monsieur Alphonse to revel night after night at the gaming-table, or at
interminable suppers! How ill he had been looking these last few weeks!
He had grown quite thin, and the great gentle eyes had acquired a
piercing, restless look. What would she not give to be able to rescue
him out of that life that was dragging him down! She glanced in the
opposite mirror and thought she had beauty enough left.

Now and then the door opened and a new guest came in, stamped his feet
and shut his wet umbrella. All bowed to Madame Virginie, and almost all
said, "What