XIX
THE VISCOUNT'S FRIENDS
The viscount's friends entered his salon in riding costume, hunting crop in hand.
The first was a tall youth of nearly six feet, and so slender and frail that he seemed in danger of breaking in two when he stooped; especially as he was always dressed in the latest style, and squeezed and pinched himself so that not the slightest crease could be detected in his clothes. Many ladies envied that young man his figure. His name was Florville, and his face was not unattractive.
The second was a young man of medium stature, whose hair was bright red, as were the rims of his eyes; which did not prevent him from esteeming himself a very good-looking fellow; he dared not turn his head, for fear of rumpling his collar or disarranging the knot of his cravat. He was an habitué of the Théàtre-Italien; he never missed a performance, insisted on posing as a great connoisseur in music, and declared that he could easily have reached high C, if his voice had been cultivated; but it had not been. This individual, so laughable by reason of his manners and his pretensions, was Monsieur Lamberlong.
The third of the viscount's visitors was a man of about thirty, remarkable neither for beauty nor ugliness, rather stout than thin, with a good-humored, smiling face, and all the manners of a high liver. His name was Dumarsey.
Florville and Dumarsey had enormous cigars in their mouths. The young man with the red hair did not smoke; by way of compensation, he had a little square glass over his right eye, and kept it in place almost all the time; his kind friends declared that he ought to wear one on the left eye as well, in order to conceal both his albino-like lids.
"Here we are! here we are, Edward!—The deuce! he's not ready!"
"I was sure he wouldn't be; I'd have bet on it."
"Well! what's your hurry, messieurs? In the first place, it's too early to go to the Bois. We have time enough. I will finish dressing.—Lépinette, give me a cigarette."
"Here is one, monsieur."