"Oh! there is the beautiful Duchess de Saint-Prix; all the world is here to-night—I don't speak of ourselves."
"It is a regular opera night—what a festive scene!"
"Well, after all, people do well to amuse themselves, perhaps it will not be for long."
"Why so?"
"Suppose the cholera were to come to Paris?"
"Oh! nonsense!"
"Do you believe in the cholera?"
"To be sure I do! He's coming from the North, with his walking-stick under his arm."
"The devil take him on the road! don't let us see his green visage here."
"They say he's at London."