"Oh! that must be terribly hard!"
"Look—here goes."
Roncherolle performed the feat he had described, without spilling a drop of wine. Saint-Arthur was lost in admiration, but Jéricourt muttered as he tipped back in his chair:
"I have seen clowns on the boulevard do that."
Roncherolle glared at Jéricourt with a half-angry, half-bantering expression, saying: "In truth, monsieur, I was a clown a very long while! And with the permission of the company, I will undertake to make you as flat as this knife blade in a very few moments."
Jéricourt did not know what reply to make. Zizi, who, with the tact which all women possess, divined a quarrel on the point of breaking out, made haste to say to Roncherolle:
"Come, my dear gallant, since you are so obliging and are willing to instruct us in your science, show me again what you have just done, and I will try to copy you; I will be your assistant."
"I shan't try this third way of drinking," said Saint-Arthur, "except in my own room and with unsophisticated water."
"You will do well, my boy, for you would break too many glasses here."
The young actress did what Roncherolle had just shown them, and did it with equal success.