Page:Eekhoud - The New Carthage.djvu/234

206 and talked business with compunction; another was treating Mercury lightly, and mixing into his jargon a few shady stories.

Lightermen, owners of beurts and barges, their faces brick-red, silver rings in their ears, stood at one side, near the door, and, shifting from one foot to the other, spat, chewed, played tricks on each other, and exhaled a greasy odor as they waited for charterers. English captains quarrelled, raising their voices as if they were ordering a landing, and disagreeably annoying a group of young fops and old beaus snubbed by some speculators who, not far off, were whispering the latest scandal, enumerating the instances of yesterday's good luck, unveiling the secrets of the alcove and the counting house, making up select pleasure parties for the evening, and relieving the arid ritual of commerce with stories of the boudoir and the greenroom.

"With their god-damns, they would make a saint god-damn," declared the wittier of the two young Saint-Fardiers, looking at the flashy sea-wolves, and taking himself off as he said it. His brother left with him, as radiant as if he had been responsible for the joke. They were given time to withdraw some distance; then the circle came together again.

"Their wives are going it a nice pace! Til bet they make their husbands 'god-damn!' Athanasius has nothing to envy Gaston; they look more alike than ever. And everyone is asking which of the two is the more duped. Have you heard about Cora's last escapade?" "Our great Frederick Barbarossa?"

"No—the robin has been jilted! The military cap has supplanted the hat!"

"A Belgian miltiarymilitary [sic] cap …"

"Or almost …"