and some slight movement, with subtle exactness
and with no possibility of being misapprehended, the precise shade of
feeling with which the result inspires him.

But there he stops. Nothing is said. Sorel is a philosopher: he has
indicated volumes, and he will not dilute with language. One who has
fired a little lead bullet does not need to throw after it a bushel of
mustard-seed.

The company, as they come in, one by one, wash their hands and faces,
if they see fit, at the kitchen sink, and dry them on a long
roller-towel,--a device adopted, probably, from the Americans. Then they
retire to the room behind the kitchen, and seat themselves at a long
table, at which the bear-leaders place themselves only after seeing
their animal fed, in the coalhole, where he is quartered.

At the supper-table all is joy, even with the hopeless. Fidele beams
with good-humor, and not infrequently is called on to describe, amid a
general hush, for the benefit of some new-comer from "_la belle France_"
the quarterly receipt of the communication from Washington: how he stays
at home that day, and shaves, and waits at the door for "_la poste_;"
how the gray-uniformed letter-carrier appears, hands out a letter "as
large as that," and nods smilingly to Fidele: he, too, fought at "_la
Montagne du Lookout_." The amount of the sergeant's pension astonishes
them, wonted as they are to the pecuniary treatment of soldiers in the
Old World. "_Mais_, it is a fortune! Fidele is a _vrai rentier!_ Ah!
_une republique comme ca!_"

Generally, however, Fidele contents himself at the evening meal with
smiling good-humoredly on everybody and rapidly passing in, under his
drooping mustache, spoonfuls of soup, morsels from the long French loaf,
and draughts of lager beer; for only the rich can have wine in this
country, and in the matter of drink an exile must needs lower his
standard, as the prodigal lowered his.

While Sorel and his wife and their busy maid fly in and out with
_potage_ and _roti_, "_t-r-r-res succulent_," the history of which we
must not pry too deeply into, there is much excited conversation. You
see at once that many amusing things happen to one who sells balloons
all day upon the Park. And there are varied fortunes to recount. Such
a lady actually wished to buy three for fifty cents! Such a
"police-er-mann" is to be highly commended; such another looks with an
evil eye upon all: he should truly be removed from office. There is a
ru