Whether du Tillet or Carabine were at home or not at home, supper was
served, and splendidly served, for ten persons every day. Artists, men
of letters, journalists, and the habitues of the house supped there
when they pleased. After supper they gambled. More than one member of
both Chambers came there to buy what Paris pays for by its weight in
gold,--namely, the amusement of intercourse with anomalous
untrammelled women, those meteors of the Parisian firmament who are so
difficult to class. There wit reigns; for all can be said, and all is
said. Carabine, a rival of the no less celebrated Malaga, had finally
inherited the salon of Florine, now Madame Raoul Nathan, and of Madame
Schontz, now wife of Chief-Justice du Ronceret.
As he entered, Gazonal made one remark only, but that remark was both
legitimate and legitimist: "It is finer than the Tuileries!" The
satins, velvets, brocades, the gold, the objects of art that swarmed
there, so filled the eyes of the wary provincial that at first he did
not see Madame Jenny Cadine, in a toilet intended to inspire respect,
who, concealed behind Carabine, watched his entrance observingly,
while conversing with others.
"My dear child," said Leon to Carabine, "this is my cousin, a
manufacturer, who descended upon me from the Pyrenees this morning.
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