looking at her indignantly from a distance, told her husband half
aloud:--"Fortunately I am not sitting next to her."--

The heavy coach started and the journey was resumed.

First nobody spoke. Boule de Suif did not dare raise her eyes.
At the same time she felt indignant at all her companions, and
humiliated for having yielded to the Prussian Officer into whose
arms she had been hypocritically forced by them.

But the Countess, turning to Madame Carre-Lamadon, broke soon this
painful silence.

--"I think you knew Madame d'Estrelles."

--"Yes, she is one of my friends."

--"What a charming woman!"

--"Fascinating! Really a select nature, besides highly educated,
and an artist to the tips of her fingers. She sings delightfully
and paints to perfection."

The manufacturer was talking with the Count, and in the middle of
the clatter of the window-panes, one could catch here and there a
word:--"Coupon--maturity--premium--term--"

Loiseau, who had stolen from the inn the old pack of cards, greasy
after five years friction on dirty tables, started a game of
"bezigue" with his wife.