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96 Attention! Dupoissy, his handkerchief tied to the end of his cane, gave a signal like a starter at the races.

Extemporaneous artillerymen, hidden behind the sheds, set off the charges of powder. "The cannon," said the crowd, trembling with a delicious thrill of expectation. The young Saint-Fardiers teased Angéle and Cora, who had jumped at the noise.

A choral society began singing "La Brabançonne."

"They have come! They have come!"

They had arrived. Getting out of the carriage were the burgomaster, the godfather of the ship, giving his arm to the godmother. Mademoiselle Dobouziez, who looked ravishing in a gown of rose silk and net; then Béjard, leading Mamma Dobouziez, who was more beflowered and beplumed than ever, especially since Gina had given up opposing her mother's innocent mania. At the very end came Dobouziez, who was escorting the wife of the constructor. The populace, whom the police had great difficulty in keeping out of the reserved space, wondered naively at Mademoiselle Dobouziez' beauty. They had acclaimed Door Den Berg, but had grumbled audibly as Béjard went by And there were to be found in more than one group of these good people and even on the benches upon the platform, narrators to establish a contrast between the brilliant ceremony of that day at the Fulton Dockyards, and the atrocities that had taken place there twenty-five years before, under the responsibility of Béjard senior, and with the complicity of Freddy Béjard, the future shipowner. But the hardly repressed hisses and murmurs were drowned by the silly gaiety and idle jubilation. When the cortégé had gained their places there was