Cherami kept on; not until Aunt Merlin's turban fell, would he consent to deposit her upon a bench, with her eyes starting from her head. But at that moment several gentlemen, boiling over with wrath, surrounded the terrible galoper.
"Monsieur, you threw my partner down!"
"Monsieur, you have crushed my daughter's nose!"
"Monsieur, you upset my wife; when she fell, her elastic skirt sprang up over her head, so that everybody could see—what I alone have the right to see!"
"Monsieur, you must give me satisfaction!"
"Monsieur, you haven't seen the end of this!"
While he was thus apostrophized on all sides, Cherami calmly wiped the perspiration from his face, and said:
"Sapristi! what's the matter with them all? They are delightful!—I consider that you're a delightful lot! You ought to have got out of the way; that's what I did, when you ran into me while you were waltzing just now. Is it my fault, if you don't know how to keep on your legs? What a terrible thing, if your estimable daughter's nose is a little bruised; and if your wife, monsieur, did show some admirable things! It seems to me that you ought to be flattered by the accident, for everybody must envy your good fortune."
These retorts were far from appeasing the wrath of the husbands, brothers, and fathers who had been maltreated in the persons of the objects of their affections. But Uncle Blanquette forced his way through the crowd, and said to him who had caused all the confusion, assuming a tone which he strove to make dignified:
"Monsieur, you have caused a grave perturbation at my nephew's wedding party——"