A Romance of Youth -- Volume 2

he yellow parlor!" and he was conducted into a room where a dazzling table was laid by a young man, with a Yankee goatee and whiskers, and the agilit

of the table was a large dish of crayfish, and at each pl

t fashion, whom Amedee did not at first recognize as his former comrades, who once wore wrinkled stocking

you remember me?" and a shaking of hands,

e. A make-believe actor, he puts on airs, and in the three minutes that he has been in the room he has looked at his retrousse nose and his coarse face, made to be seen from a distance, ten times in the mirror. His first ca

upon the sofa? It is Arthur Papillon, the distinguished Latin scholar who wished to organize a debating society at the Lycee, and to divide the rhetoric class in

ely recognized

e!" exclaimed

doing now? Nothing. His father has made two hundred thousand pounds' income dabbling in certain things, and Gustave is getting acquainted with that is all-which means to wake up every morning toward noon, with a bitter mouth caused from the last night's supper, and to be surprised every morning at dawn at the baccarat table, after spending five hours saying "Bac!" in a stifled, hollow voice. Gustave unde

e!-the five young men all talked at once. What a racket! Exclamations crossed one another like rockets. Gustave, forcing his weak voice, boasted of the performances of a "stepper" that he had tried that morning in the Allee des Cavaliers. He would have been much better off had he stayed in his bed and taken cod-liver oil. Maurice called out to the boy to uncork the Chateau-Leoville. Amedee, having spoken of his drama to the comedian Gorju, called Jocquelet, that person,

government should come around to "a pacific and regular movement of parliamentary institutions," was listened to for a time, and explained, in a clear, full voice the last article in the 'Courrier du Dimanche'. But, bursting out in his terrible voice, which seemed like all of Gideon's trumpets blowing at once, the comedian took up the offensive, and victoriously declared a hundred foolish things-saying, for example,

me than it would take to shuffle a pack of cards. He even served the very worst part of the bird to the simple Amedee, as he would force him to choose the nin

ttiest actresses in Paris. He knew them all and described

unelle is a friend of

o was looking badly, "she has alread

she h

that sh

ject of his love-affairs; for the young advocate drank many cups of Orleanist tea, going even into the same drawing

ou must make hav

aning looks. According to him-and he puts his two thumbs

hard to please in that matter; he dreamed of an Egeria, a superior mind. What he did not tell them was, that a dressmaker's little errand

, the lawyer gave his amorous p

must be as intelligent

; the smile of a Jocon

if she had not the thro

d not l

ding to his ideas, Deborah, the tragedienne at the Odeon -a Greek statue!-had too

e most beautiful creature was agreeable to him only for one day; that it was a matter of principle, and that he had never made but one exception, in favor

ou one of these fine mornings, if you do not decide to lead a more reasonab

nhappy. The sight of this foolishness made him suffer. How these coarse young men lied! Gustave seemed to him a genuine idiot, Arthur Papillon a pedant, and as to Jocquelet,

Now do not talk in this stupid fashion, but do as I do; nibble all the apples while you have teeth. Do you know the reason why, at the moment that I am talking to the lady of the house, I notice the nose of the pretty waitress who brings in a letter on a salver? Do you know the reason why, just as I am leaving Cydalize's house, who has put a rose in my buttonhole,

it-and good-humor was restored. It reigned noisily until the end of the repast, when the effect was spoiled by that fool of a Gustave. He insisted upon drinking three glasses of kummel-why had they not poured in maple sirup?-and, imagining that Jocquelet looked at him askance, he suddenly manifest

Pole, responded to his friend's objurgations by a torrent of

ed into a chair, clothed in his topcoat and hat, dressed and spruced up, pushed down the spiral staircase, and landed in a cab. Then the pr

hands, in a thick fog, in which the gaslights looked like

od-

ee you ag

ht to the

hat Napoleon was only a mediocre general, and that all his battles were gained by his lieutenants. Jocquelet wished to go to the Odeon and hear, for the tenth time, the fifth act of a piece of the common-sense school, in which the hero, after haranguing a

a little stupid, aren't th

ill be honest; you, who are so refined and proud, tell me that you did not mean what you said-that you made a pretence of vice just to please the others. It is not possi

this tirade, laughing in advan

ience, my poor friend, is like a Suede glove, you can wear it soiled. Adieu! W

shivering in the mist, w

ame-des

this delicious child's presence has never given him the slightest uneasiness; that he has never thought of any other happiness than that of being near her. Why should not a love like that he has dreamed of some day spring up in her own heart? Have they not grown up together? Is he not the only young man that she knows intimately? What happiness to become her fiancee! Yes, it was thus that one should love! Herea

ll to the bell, climbed quickly up the long flights of stairs and opened the door to their apartment. But what was

medee, recalling the

e ill. Le

andle that burned upon the mantel, Amedee had caught sight of his father extended upon the floor, his shirt di

ce. Their love was happiness on earth; but if one of the

e never wa