curtain, when the moody Varville, seated
before the fire, interrogated Nanine. De-
cidedly, there was a new tang about this dia-
logue. I had never heard in the theater lines
that were alive, that presupposed and took
for granted, like those which passed between
Varville and Marguerite in the brief encoun-
ter before her friends entered. This intro-
duced the most brilliant, worldly, the most
enchantingly gay scene I had ever looked
upon. I had never seen champagne bottles
opened on the stage before -- indeed, I had
never seen them opened anywhere. The
memory of that supper makes me hungry
now; the sight of it then, when I had only a
students' boarding-house dinner behind me,
was delicate torment. I seem to remember
gilded chairs and tables (arranged hurriedly
by footmen in white gloves and stockings),
linen of dazzling whiteness, glittering glass,
silver dishes, a great bowl of fruit, and the
reddest of roses. The room was invaded by
beautiful women and dashing young men,
laughing and talking together. The men were
dressed more or less after the period in which
the play was written; the women were not.
I saw no inconsistency. Their talk seemed

[[309]]

p308 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p309w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p310

v?