“I believe you, my boy—­when it is necessary; then he is my Lord Dumoulin, as large as life.  He rolls his eyes, walks with his head on one side, and his toes turned in; but, when the piece is played out, he slips away to the balls of which he is so fond.  The girls christened him Ninny Moulin.  Add, that he drinks like a fish, and you have the photo of the cove.  All this doesn’t prevent his writing for the religious newspapers; and the saints, whom he lets in even oftener than himself, are ready to swear by him.  You should see his articles and his tracts—­only see, not read!—­every page is full of the devil and his horns, and the desperate fryings which await your impious revolutionists—­and then the authority of the bishops, the power of the Pope—­hang it! how could I know it all?  This toper, Ninny Moulin, gives good measure enough for their money!”

“The fact is, that he is both a heavy drinker and a heavy swell.  How he rattled on with little Rose-Pompon in the dance and the full-blown tulip!”

“And what a rum chap he looked in his Roman helmet and top-boots.”

“Rose-Pompon dances divinely, too; she has the poetic twist.”

“And don’t show her heels a bit!”

“Yes; but the Bacchanal Queen is six thousand feet above the level of any common leg-shaker.  I always come back to her step last night in the full-blown tulip.”

“It was huge!”

“It was serene!”

“If I were father of a family, I would entrust her with the education of my sons!”

“It was that step, however, which offended the bobby’s modesty.”

“The fact is, it was a little free.”

“Free as air—­so the policeman comes up to her, and says:  ’Well, my Queen, is your foot to keep on a-goin’ up forever?’ ‘No, modest warrior!’ replies the Queen; ’I practice the step only once every evening, to be able to dance it when I am old.  I made a vow of it, that you might become an inspector.’”

“What a comic card!”

“I don’t believe she will remain always with Sleepinbuff.”

“Because he has been a workman?”

“What nonsense! it would preciously become us, students and shop-boys, to give ourselves airs!  No; but I am astonished at the Queen’s fidelity.”

“Yes—­they’ve been a team for three or four good months.”

“She’s wild upon him, and he on her.”

“They must lead a gay life.”

“Sometimes I ask myself where the devil Sleepinbuff gets all the money he spends.  It appears that he pays all last night’s expenses, three coaches-and-four, and a breakfast this morning for twenty, at ten francs a-head.”

“They say he has come into some property.  That’s why Ninny Moulin, who has a good nose for eating and drinking, made acquaintance with him last night—­leaving out of the question that he may have some designs on the Bacchanal Queen.”

“He!  In a lot!  He’s rather too ugly.  The girls like to dance with him because he makes people laugh—­but that’s all.  Little Rose-Pompon, who is such a pretty creature, has taken him as a harmless chap-her-own, in the absence of her student.”