"How queer you are! Why, that sort of thing's done every day—it's the custom. It would be like refusing a box of sweets from these gentlemen here on New Year's day. And now I must go. I shall bring them to see you to-morrow—my savages. Good-bye! Oh dear, I'm nearly dead!" and with these words she disappeared.
"Is it really true?" Renée asked her sister.
"What?"
"That guests are supplied for balls in this way?"
"Well, didn't you know that?"
"I was in the same state of ignorance," said the young man M. Barousse had brought.
"It's very convenient for foreigners," remarked Mme. Davarande.
"Yes, but it seems to me that it's rather humiliating for Parisians. Don't you think so, mademoiselle?" said the young man, turning to Mlle. Mauperin.
"Oh, it's an accepted thing, anyhow," said Mme. Davarande.