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100 glass to her lips and replied to every toast, with a dignified and aristocratic smile. The little Vanderlings, however, really drank. Held tightly by their fiances, they pretended to be ticklish, laughing like little lunatics, white, plump, red-lipped, their eyes full of the science of love.

Béjard redoubled his attentions to Gina. "Well, you are linked up to my fortunes, mademoiselle," he said, not without intention. "In The Gina that belongs to me, and which will do honor to its name, I don't doubt, I shall rejoice to find something of you. Besides, the English, our teachers in commerce, have done their ships the honor of including them among the women. For them, all objects are alike in being of the neuter gender. Only ships belong to the fair sex!"

"I feel like a little girl beside that imposing matron!" Gina replied, laughing. "And I find it difficult to believe that I held her over the baptismal fount. It was rather she who seemed to accord me her patronage. And that explains my emotion of a few moments ago! Really, all my nerve left me!"

Dobouziez, in a generous humor because of his daughter's success, and always anxious to follow usage and not to be stingy in public, had had the foreman called.

"Here," he said, giving him five louis, "here are the baptismal sweetmeats! Divide them among your men and have them quench their thirst!"

"What an idea!" grumbled Saint-Fardier senior in Béjard's ear. "The brutes won't be able to stand on their feet. Perhaps you think that I'd give them a tip! You ought to see how I sober them up at the factory on Monday mornings!"