"Why were you such a fool as to tell her that we had a coupe waiting? She instantly caught the ball on the bound and asked us to give her a little room in our carriage." "Little was hardly the word; that lady may have been thin once, but she isn't now." "Ah! I never heard of this lady that you brought home!" cried the young actress, with an American glance at her lover. "That has rather a crooked look!" "Oh! really, my diva, when I tell you that she was on the decline!" "It seems to me that you too were on the decline--with her." "However, she was a woman of great distinction, a baroness!" "Listen to that! monsieur must have baronesses now!" "The Baronne de--de Grangeville--that's the name." "De Grangeville?" said Roncherolle, who, on hearing that name, replaced on the table the glass that he was about to put to his lips. "Did you say that the lady you brought home was the Baronne de Grangeville?" "Yes, my dear neighbor; do you know her?" "No--that is to say, her name recalled a person whom I used to know." Roncherolle had become thoughtful; Zizi tapped him on the knee, saying: "Well, well, tell us what you're dreaming about, my Knight of the Round Table? Is that baroness's name going to spoil your spirits? I don't propose to have that! Don't let me hear any more of your great ladies; I call for a third way of drinking champagne." "Here! present!" said Roncherolle, resuming his playful air. "See, my dear girl, here is a third way: we put the glass on the plate like this just now, didn't we? Well, now we are going to stand this second glass on the first one; that is easy enough; but then we fill the glass that is on top, and drink the contents by lifting the plate as we did just now, without touching either glass." "Oh! that must be terribly hard!" "Look--here goes." Roncherolle performed the feat he had described, without spilling a drop of wine. Saint-Arthur was lost in admiration, but Jericourt muttered as he tipped back in his chair: "I have seen clowns on the boulevard do that." Roncherolle glared at Jericourt with a half-angry, half-bantering expression, saying: "In truth, monsieur, I was a clown a very long while! And with the permission of the company, I will undertake to make you as flat as this knife blade in a very few moments." Jericourt did not know what reply to make. Zizi, who, with the tact which all women possess, divined a quarrel on the point of breaking out, made haste to say to Roncherolle: "Come, my dear gallant, since you are so obliging and are willing to instruct us in your science, show me again what you have just done, and I will try to copy you; I will be your assistant." "I shan't try this third way of drinking," said Saint-Arthur, "except in my own room and with unsophisticated water." "You will do well, my boy, for you would break too many glasses here." The young actress did what Roncherolle had just shown them, and did it with equal success.