They stopped before a high building of poor appearance.  They went up a winding staircase.  The doctor held to the banister, which was so grimy that the hand stuck to it, and he supported the dizzy old man, whose forces were beginning to return.  They stopped at the fourth floor.

The door at which they had knocked was opened by an old woman, neat looking, with a white nightcap enclosing a thin face with sharp features, one of those good, rough faces of a hard-working and faithful woman.  She cried out: 

“For goodness sake!  What’s the matter?”

He told her the whole affair in a few words.  She became reassured and even calmed the physician himself by telling him that the same thing had happened many times.  She said:  “He must be put to bed, monsieur, that is all.  Let him sleep and tomorrow he will be all right.”

The doctor continued:  “But he can hardly speak.”

“Oh! that’s just a little drink, nothing more; he has eaten no dinner, in order to be nimble, and then he took a few absinthes in order to work himself up to the proper pitch.  You see, drink gives strength to his legs, but it stops his thoughts and words.  He is too old to dance as he does.  Really, his lack of common sense is enough to drive one mad!”

The doctor, surprised, insisted: 

“But why does he dance like that at his age?”

She shrugged her shoulders and turned red from the anger which was slowly rising within her and she cried out: 

“Ah! yes, why?  So that the people will think him young under his mask; so that the women will still take him for a young dandy and whisper nasty things into his ears; so that he can rub up against all their dirty skins, with their perfumes and powders and cosmetics.  Ah! it’s a fine business!  What a life I have had for the last forty years!  But we must first get him to bed, so that he may have no ill effects.  Would you mind helping me?  When he is like that I can’t do anything with him alone.”

The old man was sitting on his bed, with a tipsy look, his long white hair falling over his face.  His companion looked at him with tender yet indignant eyes.  She continued: 

“Just see the fine head he has for his age, and yet he has to go and disguise himself in order to make people think that he is young.  It’s a perfect shame!  Really, he has a fine head, monsieur!  Wait, I’ll show it to you before putting him to bed.”

She went to a table on which stood the washbasin a pitcher of water, soap and a comb and brush.  She took the brush, returned to the bed and pushed back the drunkard’s tangled hair.  In a few seconds she made him look like a model fit for a great painter, with his long white locks flowing on his neck.  Then she stepped back in order to observe him, saying:  “There!  Isn’t he fine for his age?”

“Very,” agreed the doctor, who was beginning to be highly amused.