Hippolyte's glass was empty.
"Drink!" said George, making a gesture as if about to fill her glass.
"No," she answered. "I prefer water, as usual. No wine pleases me, except champagne. Do you remember, at Albano, the astonishment of that good Pancrace when the cork would not pop, and he had to use a corkscrew?"
"There must be still several bottles below, in the case. I will go and find them."
And George rose quickly.
"No, no! Not this evening!"
She wanted to retain him. But, as he was preparing to descend, "I will go, too," she said.
Gayly, lightly, she descended with him into a room on the ground floor that served as a store-room.
Candia hastened to them with a lamp. They searched at the bottom of the case and recovered two bottles with silvered necks, the last.
"Here they are!" exclaimed Hippolyte, already excited sensually. "Here they are. Two more."