"Oh, no, it is too swell. I should like something funny, out of the way!
a restaurant that shopmen and work-girls go to. I adore dining at a
country inn. Oh! if we only had been able to go into the country."
As he knew nothing of the kind in the neighborhood, they wandered along
the boulevard, and ended by going into a wine-shop where there was a
dining-room. She had seen through the window two bareheaded girls
seated at tables with two soldiers. Three cab-drivers were dining at the
further end of the long and narrow room, and an individual impossible to
classify under any calling was smoking, stretched on a chair, with his
legs stuck out in front of him, his hands in the waist-band of his
trousers, and his head thrown back over the top bar. His jacket was a
museum of stains, and in his swollen pockets could be noted the neck of
a bottle, a piece of bread, a parcel wrapped up in a newspaper, and a
dangling piece of string. He had thick, tangled, curly hair, gray with
scurf, and his cap was on the floor under his chair.
The entrance of Clotilde created a sensation, due to the elegance of her
toilet. The couples ceased whispering together, the three cab-drivers
left off arguing, and the man who was smoking, having taken his pipe
from his mouth and spat in front of him, turned his head slightly to
look.
Madame de Marelle murmured: "It is very nice; we shall be very
comfortable here. Another time I will dress like a work-girl." And she
sat down, without embarrassment or disgust, before the wooden table,
polished by the fat of dishes, washed by spilt liquors, and cleaned by a
wisp of the waiter's napkin. Duroy, somewhat ill at ease, and slightly
ashamed, sought a peg to hang his tall hat on. Not finding one, he put
it on a chair.
They had a ragout, a slice of melon, and a salad. Clotilde repeated: "I
delight in this. I have low tastes. I like this better than the Cafe
Anglais." Then she added: "If you want to give me complete enjoyment,
you will take me to a dancing place. I know a very funny one close by
called the Reine Blanche."