“Wha that?” Cyprien asked.
“Yes, it is my name for these ladies, because of their inclination towards artists.... Any painter has but to stoop down to pick them up, like a ‘rag and bones’ man in a heap of rubbish.”
“And so you think that Mme. Chambannes herself....”
Schleifmann stopped him quickly.
“No, no! not at all.... Quite the contrary!”
He added maliciously:
“Mme. Chambannes leads a regular life, absolutely regular....”
Thereupon he took up the normal thread of his ideas:
“Let us go back to our people.... The Marquis de Meuze and his son, the Comte de Meuze.”
“Ah!” said M. Raindal with irony.... “Sham nobility, are they?”