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What would my friend Madame Alice de Bréville, and that whole-souled fellow Tanrade, think when I did not appear as I had promised, at madame's château, to dine at eight? Cold as I was, I could not help chuckling over the fact that it was no fault of mine. I was a prisoner. Alice and Tanrade would dine together. It would be then a dinner for two. I have never known a woman as discreet as Alice.
So Madame de Breville offered her her foot-warmer, the fuel of which had been several times renewed since the morning, and she accepted the offer at once, for her feet were icy cold. Mesdames Carre-Lamadon and Loiseau gave theirs to the nuns. The driver lighted his lanterns.
Alice de Bréville, stretched out in the long chair before the fire, was listening intently. And so with song and story the hands of the tall clock slipped by the hours. It was midnight before we knew it. Again Tanrade played this time it was the second act of his new operetta. When he had finished he took his seat beside the woman in the long chair. "Bravo!" she murmured in his ear.
Alice de Bréville, Tanrade, and myself, are dining to-night in one of these intime little rooms. The third to the left down the corridor. Sapristi! what a change in Tanrade.
Cornudet alone, no doubt in a spirit of gallantry, put his lips on the spot which was still moist from the lips of his neighbor. Then, surrounded by people who were eating, suffocated by the emanations of the food, Count and Countess de Breville, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Carre-Lamadon, were suffering from that torture which has perpetuated the name of Tantalus.
Now then, they talked, first with some restraint, then, as she behaved very well, with more freedom. Mesdames de Breville and Carre-Lamadon, who had great "savoir-faire," made themselves tactfully gracious. Specially the Countess showed that amiable condescension of great ladies whom no contact can sully, and she was charming.
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