re a few customers the bigger room might remain deserted.
So she limited herself to repapering the divan in white and gold and
recovering the benches. She began by entertaining a chemist. Then
a vermicelli maker, a lawyer and a retired magistrate put in an
appearance; and thus it was that the cafe remained open, although the
waiter did not receive twenty orders a day. No objections were raised
by the authorities, as appearances were kept up; and, indeed, it was
not deemed advisable to interfere, for some respectable folks might have
been worried.

Of an evening five or six well-to-do citizens would enter the front room
and play at dominoes there. Although Cartier was dead and the Cafe
de Paris had got a queer name, they saw nothing and kept up their old
habits. In course of time, the waiter having nothing to do, Melanie
dismissed him and made Phrosine light the solitary gas burner in the
corner where the domino players congregated. Occasionally a party of
young men, attracted by the gossip that circulated through the town,
would come in, wildly excited and laughing loudly and awkwardly. But
they were received there with icy dignity. As a rule they did not even
see the widow, and even if she happened to be present she treated them
with withering disdain, so that they withdrew, stammering and confused.
Melanie was too astute to indulge in any compromising whims. While the
front room remained obscure, save in the corner where the few townsfolk
rattled their dominoes, she personally waited on the gentlemen of the
divan, showing herself amiable without being free, merely venturing
in moments of familiarity to lean on the shoulder of one or another of
them, the better to watch a skillfully played game of ecarte.

One evening the gentlemen of the divan, who had ended by tolerating each
other's presence, experienced a disagreeable surprise on finding Captain
Burle at home there. He had casually entered the cafe that same morning
to get a glass of vermouth, so it seemed, and he had found Melanie
there. They had conversed, and in the evening when he returned Phrosine
immediately showed him to the inner room.

Two days later Burle reigned there supreme; still he had not frightened
the chemist, the vermicelli maker, the lawyer or the retired magistrate
away. The captain, who was short and dumpy, worshiped tall, plump women.
In his regiment he had been nicknamed "Petticoat Burle" on account of
his constant philandering. Whenever t