“No, indeed! I should think not! in fact, it’s a sad thing to see how rapidly mankind is degenerating! But there are people who seem to take pleasure in poisoning one. Nowadays, three-fourths of the young men carry about an odor of tobacco, of pipes, of the barracks, that turns the stomach of a person who doesn’t smoke; and women, as a general rule, haven’t adopted that habit.” “And then,” said Chambourdin, who had overheard their conversation, “we have people with poor digestions--it’s dangerous to speak to them after dinner. And there are some too with decayed teeth; I can’t forgive them, for they might go to a dentist, who would make them inodorous. We also have ladies who lace too tight and ruin their stomachs in that way.” “Oh! really, monsieur, I don’t believe that!” “I will procure you the testimony of physicians, madame, to the effect that many ladies, married and unmarried, have attempted to make their waists so slender, have so squeezed their poor bodies, that the internal organs have suffered, and foul breath has arrived after some time. What madness! what idiocy! Ah! mesdames, the most willowy, the most slender waist will never be worth a fresh, pure breath, which is an indispensable accompaniment of beauty!--Dufournelle, I trust that we are going to have a little one?” “A little what?” “Parbleu! a little game of bouillotte--you and I and Monsieur de Merval, and that little villain of a Miaulard, who has just arrived sneezing; he always has a cold in his head.” “Oh! messieurs, you think of nothing in the world but your cards; how nice it is of you, instead of playing with us!” “Playing what?” “Why, little games.” “More or less innocent.--I’ll do it, on condition that I am allowed to play blindman’s-buff sitting down, and that the ladies guess who I am.--Ah! good! if that unlucky Kingerie hasn’t upset a Carcel lamp, and Mademoiselle Glumeau’s dress is covered with oil! That youth is really very dangerous in company!” “Oho! there’s a different sort of thing over yonder! Just look at Mademoiselle Polymnie and Monsieur Astianax playing battledore and shuttlecock, and seated, at that!” “Why, no, they’re going to play cup and ball; they both have pointed sticks in their hands.” “It’s a new kind of shuttlecock, monsieur: instead of hitting it with a racquet, somebody, not long ago, invented cornets to catch it in; but it’s a much prettier way that they do it now: the shuttlecock has a hole at the end, and you have to catch it by sticking the point into the hole.” “That’s a game that the ladies enjoy greatly; it is immensely popular in salons.” “But it must be rather hard.” “Mademoiselle Polymnie is very strong at it, they say; she has asked young Kingerie to come to count the strokes.” “Thus far I haven’t seen him do anything but pick up the shuttlecock, which the players don’t seem to catch on their sticks.” And Chambourdin walked toward them, saying: