The Mayoress ordered hers from Paris, did you know?’
‘Fat lot of good that’s done her!
She wears it like a dog dressed-up.
The watchmaker’s wife has got on the same bodice she wore two years ago!’
‘Yes, I know! Bet she wants to give her daughter a dowry so she’s got good reason, poor thing!’
The revered little Jean Dupuy had stood up and was beginning his reply in a dry voice, wearing an air of importance that was highly diverting.
Luckily, he did not speak for long.
Everyone clapped, including ourselves, as loud as we could.
It was amusing, all those heads waving, all those hands beating in the air down there at our feet, all those black mouths yelling … And what glorious sunshine over it all! a trifle too hot …
There was a scuffling of chairs on the platform; all their Lordships were getting up. They signed to us to go down; they led the Minister away to feed; now we could go off to lunch!
With great difficulty, tossed about in the crowd which kept pushing in opposite directions, we managed at last to get out of the courtyard into the square where the cohorts were thinning out a little.
All the little girls in white were going off, alone or with immensely proud Mammas who were waiting for them; the three of us were going to separate, too.
‘Did you enjoy yourself?’ asked Anais.
‘Certainly I did.
It went off very well – it was great fun!’
‘Well, to my mind … Somehow, I thought it would have been more amusing … It needed a bit of livening-up, in fact!’
‘Shut up, you give me a pain!
I know what you thought it needed.
You’d have liked to stand up and sing something, all by yourself on the platform. Then the whole thing would have immediately seemed much gayer to you.’
‘Go on, you can’t hurt my feelings.
Everyone knows what those polite remarks mean from you!’
‘As for me,’ confessed Marie, ‘I’ve never enjoyed myself so much in my life. Oh! What he said about us … I didn’t know where to hide myself! … What time do we have to be back?’
‘Two o’clock precisely.
That means half past two, you can be quite sure the banquet won’t be finished before that.
Goodbye, see you very soon!’
At home, Papa inquired with interest:
‘Did he speak well, Meline?’
‘Meline!
Why not Sully?
It’s Jean Dupuy, you know, Papa!’
‘Why, yes.’
But he found his daughter pretty and looked at her with satisfaction.
After lunch, I tidied myself up; I rearranged my wreath of marguerites, I shook the dust off my muslin skirts and I waited patiently for two hours, fighting off with all my might a violent desire to take a siesta.
Heavens, how hot it would be down there! –
‘Fanchette, don’t touch my skirt, it’s muslin.
No, I’m not going to catch flies for you, can’t you see I’m receiving the Minister?’
I went out once again; the streets were already humming and rang with the sound of footsteps, all of which were going downhill towards the Schools.
Nearly all my schoolmates were already there when I arrived; red faces, muslin skirts already limp and crumpled; the crisp freshness of this morning had gone.
Luce was stretching and yawning; she had eaten her lunch too fast; she was sleepy; she was too hot; she could ‘feel herself growing claws’.
Anais alone remained the same; just as pale, just as cold, neither languid nor excited.
Our two mistresses came down at last.
Mademoiselle Sergent, her cheeks burning, was scolding Aimee who had stained the hem of her skirt with raspberry juice; the spoilt little thing sulked and shrugged her shoulders and turned away, refusing to see the tender beseeching in her friend’s eyes.
Luce eagerly watched all this, fuming and sneering.
‘Now, now, are all of you here?’ scolded Mademoiselle, who, as usual, was visiting her personal resentments on our innocent heads. ‘Whether you are or not, we’re leaving now.
I’ve no desire to hang … to wait about here for an hour.
Get into line – and quicker than lightning!’
We needn’t have hurried!
Up there, on that enormous platform, we marked time for ages, for the Minister lingered endlessly over his coffee and all that went with it.
The crowd, herded like sheep down below, looked up at us and laughed, with the sweating faces of people who have lunched heavily … The
‘Society’ ladies had brought campstools; the innkeeper from the Rue du Cloitre had set out benches, which he was hiring out at two sous a place; and the boys and girls had piled on to them, shoving each other; all those people, tipsy, coarse, and cheerful, waited patiently, exchanging loud ribaldries which they shouted to each other from a distance with tremendous laughs.