“Every one who is born with eyes in their head can use them if they have any sense,” said Berthe; and she took up the ivory puff on her dressing-table, and began very deliberately shaking out delicate white clouds of poudre à la violette over her forehead and cheeks.
We were going together to a marriage at St. Roch, and we were to be there at midi précis, the faire-part said, so I had to remind Berthe that, if the business of powdering and puffing proceeded at this rate, we might save ourselves the trouble of the drive. With the sudden impulse that carried her so swiftly from one object to another, she dropped the puff, snatched her pink bonnet from Antoinette, put it on, fastened it herself, seized her gloves and prayer-book, and we hurried down-stairs and were off.
On turning into the Faubourg St. Honoré, we found a crowd collected in front of the mairie. Berthe pulled the check-string.
“It’s news from the frontière!” she exclaimed eagerly. “If we were to miss the wedding, we must know what it is!”
She sprang out of the brougham, and I after her. The crowd was so deep that we could not get near enough to read the placards; but, judging by the exclamations and commentaries that accompanied the perusal by the foremost readers, the news was both exciting and agreeable.
“Fallait pas nous effrayer, mes petites dames,” said a blouse, who had seen us alight, and saw by our faces that we were alarmed. “We’ve beaten one-half of the Prussians to a jelly, and driven the rest across the Rhine.”
“The canaille! I always said they would run like rabbits the first taste they got of our chassepots,” exclaimed a lad of fourteen, who halted with arms akimbo and a basket of vegetables on his head to hear the news.
“And these are the chaps that marched out of Berlin to the cry of Nach Paris! nach Paris! The beggars! They were glad enough to clean our streets—aye, and would have cleaned our boots in their moustachios, and thankful, just to turn a penny that they couldn’t make at home,” cried the first speaker.
“Nach Paris indeed!” cried the lad with the vegetables. “Let them come; let them try it!”
“Let them!” echoed several voices. “We’ll give them a warm welcome.”