spite of the regrets they manifested on account of Madame's absence.

Among the guests was Marillac, whose sparkling eye, and cheeks even more
rosy than usual, made him conspicuous. Seated between a fat notary and
another boon companion, who were almost as drunk as he Marillac emptied
glass after glass, red wine after the white, the white after the red,
with noisy laughter, and jests of all kinds by way of accompaniment. His
head became every moment more and more excited by the libations destined
to refresh his throat, and his neighbors, without his perceiving the
conspiracy, thought it would be good fun to put a Parisian dandy under
the table. However, he was not the only one who was gliding over the
slippery precipice that leads to the attractive abyss of drunkenness.
The majority of the guests shared his imprudent abandon and progressive
exaltation. A bacchic emulation reigned, which threatened to end in
scenes bordering upon a debauch.

Among these highly colored cheeks, under which the wine seemed to
circulate with the blood, these eyes shining with a dull, fictitious
light, all this disorderly pantomime so contrary to the quiet habit of
the gesticulators, two faces contrasted strangely with the careless mirth
of the others. The Baron fulfilled his duties as master of the house
with a sort of nervous excitement which might pass for genuine merriment
in the eyes of those of his guests who were in no condition to study his
countenance; but a quiet observer would soon have discerned that these
violent efforts at good-humor and bantering concealed some terrible
suffering. From time to time, in the midst of a sentence or a laugh, he
would suddenly stop, the muscles of his face would twitch as if the
spring which set them in motion had broken; his expression became sombre
and savage; he sank back in his chair motionless, a stranger to all that
surrounded him, and gave himself up to some mysterious thought against