shut up in a little open box draped with red, and holding
four chairs of the same color, so near to one another that one could
scarcely slip between them. The two friends sat down. To the right, as
to the left, following a long curved line, the two ends of which joined
the proscenium, a row of similar cribs held people seated in like
fashion, with only their heads and chests visible.

On the stage, three young fellows in fleshings, one tall, one of middle
size, and one small, were executing feats in turn upon a trapeze.

The tall one first advanced with short, quick steps, smiling and waving
his hand as though wafting a kiss.

The muscles of his arms and legs stood out under his tights. He expanded
his chest to take off the effect of his too prominent stomach, and his
face resembled that of a barber's block, for a careful parting divided
his locks equally on the center of the skull. He gained the trapeze by a
graceful bound, and, hanging by the hands, whirled round it like a wheel
at full speed, or, with stiff arms and straightened body, held himself
out horizontally in space.

Then he jumped down, saluted the audience again with a smile amidst the
applause of the stalls, and went and leaned against the scenery, showing
off the muscles of his legs at every step.

The second, shorter and more squarely built, advanced in turn, and went
through the same performance, which the third also recommenced amidst
most marked expressions of approval from the public.

But Duroy scarcely noticed the performance, and, with head averted, kept
his eyes on the promenade behind him, full of men and prostitutes.

Said Forestier to him: "Look at the stalls; nothing but middle-class
folk with their wives and children, good noodlepates who come to see
the show. In the boxes, men about town, some artistes, some girls, good
second-raters; and behind us, the strangest mixture in Paris. Who are
these men? Watch them. There is something of everything, of every
profession, and every caste; but blackguardism predominates. There are
clerks of all kinds--bankers' clerks, government clerks, shopmen,
reporters, ponces, officers in plain clothes, swells in evening dress,
who have dined out, and have dropped in here on their way from the Opera
to the Theatre des Italiens; and then again, too, quite a crowd of
suspicious folk who defy analysis. As to the women, only one type, the
girl who sups at the American _cafe_, the girl at one or two louis who