There are few marriages among these bohemians of the Butte, but love they hold sacred, and woman as the ideal of all creation. Among scores of these petits ménages exist peace, happiness and fidelity. Many are the most domestic of homes. Sometimes these bons garçons and braves filles do marry, just as they tell you Pierrot really did in the end, beneath the trembling organ and the tolling bell; but these instances are rare. When one does happen, the quarter speaks of it as of some unusual incident in the lives of friends, such as a voyage to China.
Beneath an undulating haze of incense from a dozen gurgling pipes a song floats through the cabaret. Listen!
“Viens! mon amour, la route est claire,
Et tout en fleurs est le chemin;
Et lon lon laire la route est claire,
Pierrot!—Donne moi donc ta main.”
Chapter Seven
CIRCUSES AND FÊTES FORAINES
Fifteen years ago all of idle Paris applauded “La Goulue,” a can-can danseuse whose beauty and abandon made her notorious. In every sense of the term “La Goulue” was of the kind of quadrille dancers which were to be found at the old Mabille when it was at the height of its blaze and glory.