Transcriber’s Note:- The original spelling, hyphenation, accentuation and punctuation has been retained, with the exception of apparent typographical errors which have been corrected. Italic text is denoted _thus_. THE RAPIN BY HENRY DE VERE STACPOOLE AUTHOR OF “PIERROT” [Illustration: colophon] NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1899 _This book is not for sale outside of the United States and Canada._ COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY HENRY HOLT & CO. THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J. FOREWORD. In the rooms of my friend Otto Struve there hangs a parrot cage containing a somewhat dejected-looking lark. It was given to him by Gustave Garnier, the man who took the Prix de Rome last year—or was it the year before?—and whose picture of a girl was bought by the state for I do not know how many thousand francs before it had hung a fortnight in the Salon. A story connects the painter and the picture and the bird—a story whose name ought to have been “Célestin” but for that eternal unfitness of things which makes the comedy of real life an inverted image of the comedy of romance and demands for the story of Célestin the title of “Toto,” or, if it please you better, “The Rapin.” H. de V. S. CONTENTS. PART I. CHAPTER PAGE I. TOTO 1 II. THE GOOD ADVICE OF M. DE NANI 20 III. THE FAG END OF A NIGHT AND THE BEGINNING OF A MORNING 35 IV. THE POETRY OF HATS 45 V. GAILLARD THE COMFORTER 62 VI. FANFOULLARD, MIRMILLARD, AND PAPILLARD 76 PART II. I. IT IS NOT ALWAYS MAY 88 II. FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE 103 III. THE GENESIS OF “PANTIN” 117 IV. RECEIPT FOR STUFFING A MARQUIS 130 V. ANGÉLIQUE 141 VI. THE DEPARTURE 146 PART III. I. GARNIER 153 II. THE SORROWS OF GAILLARD 165 III. THE SORROWS OF ART 185 IV. BOURGEOIS—BANKER—PRINCE 192 V. THE SHOWER 218 PART IV. I. ADAM FROISSART 227 II. THE STORY OF FANTOFF AND BASTICHE 253 III. THE REVENGE OF M. DE NANI 262 IV. ENVOY 290 THE RAPIN. Part I. CHAPTER I. TOTO. The room was filled with an odor of Nice violets, fur, and the faint scent of caravan tea. A number of candles burning under rose-colored shades lit the place subduedly, whilst through the great windows the broad white expanse of the Boulevard Haussmann reflected the cold light of the April evening with a suggestion of snow.