“What a mistake this war is!  What a bloodthirsty piece of stupidity!”

At this Lucy forthwith took up the cudgels for the empire.  She had been the mistress of a prince of the imperial house, and its defense became a point of family honor with her.

“Do leave them alone, my dear.  We couldn’t let ourselves be further insulted!  Why, this war concerns the honor of France.  Oh, you know I don’t say that because of the prince.  He was just mean!  Just imagine, at night when he was going to bed he hid his gold in his boots, and when we played at bezique he used beans, because one day I pounced down on the stakes for fun.  But that doesn’t prevent my being fair.  The emperor was right.”

Lea shook her head with an air of superiority, as became a woman who was repeating the opinions of important personages.  Then raising her voice: 

“This is the end of all things.  They’re out of their minds at the Tuileries.  France ought to have driven them out yesterday.  Don’t you see?”

They all violently interrupted her.  What was up with her?  Was she mad about the emperor?  Were people not happy?  Was business doing badly?  Paris would never enjoy itself so thoroughly again.

Gaga was beside herself; she woke up and was very indignant.

“Be quiet!  It’s idiotic!  You don’t know what you’re saying.  I—­I’ve seen Louis Philippe’s reign:  it was full of beggars and misers, my dear.  And then came ’48!  Oh, it was a pretty disgusting business was their republic!  After February I was simply dying of starvation—­yes, I, Gaga.  Oh, if only you’d been through it all you would go down on your knees before the emperor, for he’s been a father to us; yes, a father to us.”

She had to be soothed but continued with pious fervor: 

“O my God, do Thy best to give the emperor the victory.  Preserve the empire to us!”

They all repeated this aspiration, and Blanche confessed that she burned candles for the emperor.  Caroline had been smitten by him and for two whole months had walked where he was likely to pass but had failed to attract his attention.  And with that the others burst forth into furious denunciations of the Republicans and talked of exterminating them on the frontiers so that Napoleon III, after having beaten the enemy, might reign peacefully amid universal enjoyment.

“That dirty Bismarck—­there’s another cad for you!” Maria Blond remarked.

“To think that I should have known him!” cried Simonne.  “If only I could have foreseen, I’m the one that would have put some poison in his glass.”

But Blanche, on whose heart the expulsion of her Prussian still weighed, ventured to defend Bismarck.  Perhaps he wasn’t such a bad sort.  To every man his trade!

“You know,” she added, “he adores women.”

“What the hell has that got to do with us?” said Clarisse.  “We don’t want to cuddle him, eh?”