n hand, he talks with the
young women, tells them amusing stories, and makes them relate all their
love-affairs. When friends come to see him, they can always see a model
just disappearing behind a curtain. Amedee prefers to visit his friend
on Sunday afternoons, and thus avoid meeting these models; and then,
too, he meets there on that day Arthur Papillon, who paves the way for
his political career by pleading lawsuits for the press. Although he is,
at heart, only a very moderate Liberalist, this young man, with the very
chic side whiskers, defends the most republican of "beards," if it can
be called defending; for in spite of his fine oratorical efforts, his
clients are regularly favored with the maximum of punishment. But they
are all delighted with it, for the title of "political convict" is one
very much in demand among the irreconcilables. They are all convinced
that the time is near when they will overthrow the Empire, without
suspecting, alas! that in order to do that twelve hundred thousand
German bayonets will be necessary. The day after the triumph, the month
of imprisonment will be taken into account, and St. Pelagie is not the
'carcere duro'. Papillon is cunning and wishes to have a finger in every
pie, so he goes to dine once a week with those who owe their sojourn in
this easy-going jail to him, and regularly carries them a lobster.

Paul Sillery, who has also made Maurice's acquaintance, loiters in this
studio. The amiable Bohemian has not yet paid his bill to Pere Lebuffle,
but he has cut his red fleece close to his head, and publishes every
Sunday, in the journals, news full of grace and humor. Of course they
will never pardon him at the Cafe de Seville; the "long-haired" ones
have disowned this traitor who has gone over to the enemy, and is now
only a sickening and fetid bourgeois; and if the poetical club were able
to enforce its decrees, Paul Sillery, like an apostate Jew in the times
of the Inquisition, would have been scourged and burned alive. Paul
Sillery does not trouble himself about it, however; and from time to
time returns to the "Seville" and treats its members to a bumper all
around, which he pays for with the gold of his dishonor. Sometimes
Jocquelet appears, with his smooth-shaved face; but only rarely, for he
is at present a very busy man and already celebrated. His audacious nose
is reproduced in all positions and displayed in photographers' windows,
where he has for neighbors the nega