"Soup."
"Ah!" Dossonville nodded, with understanding. "True! As long as the material world exists, soup is possible. Well, soup be it, citoyenne, soon and hot."
He passed curiously to the card-players, for his ear had caught such strange expressions as these:
"I play the Liberty of Marriage."
"I the Genius of Peace."
"The Equality of Rank."
"Liberty of the Press."
"Taken by the Genius of Arts."
Dossonville, much perplexed, moved to a survey of the pack. He found the Monarchs indeed dethroned; the Kings succeeded by the Geniuses of War, Commerce, Peace, and the Arts; the Queens replaced by the Liberties of Faith, Professions, Marriage, and the Press. The Knaves themselves, as though suspected of royalistic tendencies, had yielded to the Equalities of Duties, Color, Rights, and Rank.
"The sentiment is perfect," he murmured to himself, "perfect, but perplexing."