"Oh, there isn't much to tell," said the Marchesa. "Narcisse was
condemned, indeed, but no one ever believed he would be executed.
One of my oldest friends is married to an official high up in the
Ministry of Justice, and I heard from her last week that Narcisse
would certainly be reprieved; but I never expected a free pardon.
Indeed, he got this entirely because it was discovered that
Mademoiselle Sidonie, his accomplice, was really a Miss Adah
Levine, who had graduated at a music-hall in East London, and that
she had announced her intention of retiring to the land of her
birth, and ascending to the apex of her profession on the strength
of her Parisian reputation. Then it was that the reaction in
favour of Narcisse set in; the boulevards could not stand this.
The journals dealt with this new outrage in their best Fashoda
style; the cafes rang with it: another insult cast upon unhappy
France, whose destiny was, it seemed, to weep tears of blood to the
end of time. There were rumours of an interpellation in the
Chamber, the position of the Minister of the Interior was spoken of
as precarious, indeed the Eclaireur reported one evening that he
had resigned. Pockets were picked under the eyes of sergents de
ville, who were absorbed in proclaiming to each other their
conviction of the innocence of Narcisse, and the guilt of cette
coquine Anglaise. Cabmen en course ran down pedestrians by the
dozen, as they discussed l'affaire Narcisse to an accompaniment of
whip-cracking. In front of the Cafe des Automobiles a belated
organ-grinder began to grind the air of Mademoiselle Sidonie's
great song Bonjour Coco, whereupon the whole company rose with
howls and cries of, 'A bas les Anglais, a bas les Juifs. 'Conspuez
Coco.' In less than five minutes the organ was disintegrated, and
the luckless minstrel flying with torn trousers down a side street.
For the next few days la haute gomme promenaded with fragments of