The women, whose thighs were disjointed, skipped amid such a flying upwards of their petticoats that the lower portions of their frames were displayed.  They kicked their feet up above their heads with astounding facility, balanced their bodies, wagged their backs and shook their sides, shedding around them a powerful scent of sweating womanhood.

The men were squatted like toads, some making obscene signs; some turned and twisted themselves, grimacing and hideous; some turned like a wheel on their hands, or, perhaps, trying to make themselves funny, sketched the manners of the day with exaggerated gracefulness.

A fat servant-maid and two waiters served refreshments.

This cafe-boat being only covered with a roof and having no wall whatever, to shut it in, the hare-brained dance was displayed in the face of the peaceful night and of the firmament powdered with stars.

Suddenly, Mount Valerien, yonder opposite, appears illumined, as if a conflagration had been set ablaze behind it.  The radiance spreads itself and deepens upon the sky, describing a large luminous circle of wan and white light.  Then something or other red appeared, grew greater, shining with a burning red, like that of hot metal upon the anvil.  That gradually developed into a round body which seemed to arise from the earth; and the moon, freeing herself from the horizon, rose slowly into space.  In proportion as she ascended, the purple tint faded and became yellow, a shining bright yellow, and the satellite appeared to grow smaller in proportion as her distance increased.

Paul watched her for sometime, lost in contemplation, forgetting his mistress, and when he returned to himself the latter had vanished.

He sought for her, but could not find her.  He threw his anxious eye over table after table, going to and fro unceasingly, inquiring after her from this one and that one.  No one had seen her.  He was thus tormented with disquietude, when one of the waiters said to him: 

“You are looking for Madame Madeleine, are you not?  She has left but a few moments ago, in company with Madame Pauline.”  And at the same instant, Paul perceived the cabin-boy and the two pretty girls standing at the other end of the cafe, all three holding each others’ waists and lying in wait for him, whispering to one another.  He understood, and, like a madman, dashed off into the island.

He first ran towards Chatou, but having reached the plain, retraced his steps.  Then he began to search the dense coppices, occasionally roamed about distractedly, halting to listen.

The toads all round about him poured out their metallic and short notes.

Towards Bougival, some unknown bird warbled some song which reached him from the distance.