fat." She was a little roly-poly creature, cushioned
with fat, with podgy fingers squeezed in at the joints like rows of
thick, short sausages; her skin tightly stretched and shiny, her bust
enormous, and yet with it all so wholesomely, temptingly fresh and
appetizing that it was a pleasure to look at her. Her face was like a
ruddy apple--a peony rose just burst into bloom--and out of it gazed a
pair of magnificent dark eyes overshadowed by long thick lashes that
deepened their blackness; and lower down, a charming little mouth, dewy
to the kiss, and furnished with a row of tiny milk-white teeth. Over and
above all this she was, they said, full of inestimable qualities.

No sooner was her identity recognized than a whisper ran through the
ladies in which the words "prostitute" and "public scandal," were so
conspicuously distinct that she raised her head and retaliated by
sweeping her companions with such a bold and defiant look that deep
silence instantly fell upon them, and they all cast down their eyes with
the exception of Loiseau, who watched her with a kindling eye.

However, conversation was soon resumed between the three ladies, whom
the presence of this "person" had suddenly rendered friendly--almost
intimate. It seemed to them that they must, as it were, raise a rampart
of their dignity as spouses between them and this shameless creature who
made a traffic of herself; for legalized love always takes a high hand
with her unlicensed sister.

The three men too, drawn to one another by a conservative instinct at
sight of Cornudet, talked money in a certain tone of contempt for the
impecunious. Count Hubert spoke of the damage inflicted on him by the
Prussians, of the losses which would result to him from the seizing of
cattle and from ruined crops, but with all the assurance of a great
landed proprietor, ten times millionaire, whom these ravages might
inconvenience for the space of a year at most. Monsieur Carre-Lamadon,
of great experience in the cotton industry, had taken the precaution to
send six hundred thousand francs across to England as provision against
a rainy day. As for Loiseau, he made arrangements to sell all the wine
in his cellars to the French commission of supplies, consequently the
Government owed him a formidable sum, which he counted upon receiving at
Havre.

The three exchanged rapid and amicable glances. Although differing in
position they felt themselves brothers in money, and of the gre