"I would have taken the third with my ace." "Ah! so you think we could have prevented monsieur from counting his five hundred?" "That's plain enough. I don't see that you're any stronger at this game than at whist." "I certainly wouldn't play for five hundred francs a game, like your son-in-law! But I didn't know that there was any skill in bezique; I thought it was all luck." "You see that it isn't! Indeed, any game can be played well or ill." "Even lotto?" "Certainly, you can forget to count." Adolphine was singing a second selection, when Anatole de Raincy was announced. The arrival of the young man with the lisp interrupted the music, and seemed greatly to annoy Monsieur de la Beriniere, who decided thereupon to visit the card-table. The game was finished, and Monsieur Clairval had won. "Take my place," said Monsieur Gerbault to the count. "Thanks, but I never play bezique with more than two." "Play with Monsieur Batonnin, then; I will play a game of chess with Clairval, if it's agreeable to him." "Anything is agreeable to me." "Unless Monsieur de Raincy would like to play whist with a dummy." "Oh! I thank you, but I don't care about playing; I much prefer to thing with Mademoithelle Adolphine, if that ith agreeable to her." "It will give me great pleasure, monsieur." "I have brought a few thongth, which I thing pathably--tholoth and dueth.--You play everything at thight, I know?" "I will try, at all events, monsieur; and if they're not too hard----" "Here'th the aria from _La Dame Blanche_. I can thing that; it ith in the range of my voith." "Very good! I will play your accompaniment." "If that young man sings as he talks," muttered Batonnin, with an affable smile at the count, who had taken his place opposite him, "it will produce a strange effect." "He would do much better to let us listen to Mademoiselle Adolphine." "Oh! yes, she has a voice----" "Shall we play for two thousand?" "That goes to the heart, monsieur." "And we play with four packs." "Very well.--But there are some men who have a perfect mania for singing." "And who often sing false--as, for instance---- I declare four queens!" While these gentlemen played, Anatole shouted at the top of his voice: "'Come, lady fair; I await thee, I await thee, I await thee!'" "That is horrible!" said the count. "It sounds like the hissing of a railroad train when it stops." "I have a sequence!" "It seems that we are not to see Madame Monleard and her husband this evening?" "No; they have gone to some grand affair.--I declare a single bezique!" "Ah! Monleard doesn't propose that his little wife shall be bored; they are going to parties all the time." "Yes; if only it will last.--I declare four kings--eighty!" "And why shouldn't it last?--Mon Dieu! how that fellow makes my ears ache with his 'I await thee! I await thee!'--I am sorry for Mademoiselle Adolphine."