e great trees which overhang the floating-house, and
notwithstanding the vicinity of the water a suffocating heat fills the
place. The fumes of the spilt liquors mix with the effluvium of the
bodies and with that of the strong perfumes with which the skin of the
traders in love is saturated and which evaporate in this furnace. But
beneath all these diverse scents a slight aroma of vice-powder lingered,
which now disappeared and then reappeared, which one was perpetually
encountering as though some concealed hand had shaken an invisible
powder-puff in the air. The show was upon the river whither the perpetual
coming and going of the boats attracts the eyes. The boatwomen sprawled
upon their seats opposite their strong-wristed males, and contemplated
with contempt the dinner hunters prowling about the island.

Sometimes when a train of boats, just started, passed at full speed, the
friends who stayed ashore gave shouts, and all the people suddenly seized
with madness set to work yelling.

At the bend of the river towards Chaton fresh boats showed themselves
unceasingly. They came nearer and grew larger, and if only faces were
recognized, the vociferations broke out anew.

A canoe covered with an awning and manned by four women came slowly down
the current. She who rowed was little, thin, faded, in a cabin boy's
costume, her hair drawn up under an oil-skin cap. Opposite her, a lusty
blonde, dressed as a man, with a white flannel jacket, lay upon her back
at the bottom of the boat, her legs in the air, on the seat at each side
of the rower, and she smoked a cigarette, while at each stroke of the
oars, her chest and stomach quivered, shaken by the shock. Quite at the
back, under the awning, two handsome girls, tall and slender, one dark
and the other fair, held each other by the waist as they unceasingly
watched their companions.

A cry arose from La Grenonillere, "There is Lesbos," and there became all
at once a furious clamor; a terrifying scramble took place; the glasses
were knocked down; people clambered on to the tables; all in a frenzy of
noise bawled: "Lesbos! Lesbos! Lesbos!" The shout rolled along, became
indistinct, was no longer more than a kind of tremendous howl, and then
suddenly it seemed to start anew, to rise into space, to cover the plain,
to fill the foliage of the great trees, to extend itself to the distant
slopes, to go even to the sun.

The rower, in the face of this ovation, had quietly stopped.