Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 5.djvu/151

Rh Blue Chamber from some dishes filched from the Hussars' and the Chasseurs' banquet, Leon and his lover were much disturbed by the conversation in which the gentlemen in the neighbouring room were engaged. They held forth on abstruse subjects concerning strategy and tactics, which I shall refrain from repeating. There were a succession of wild stories — nearly all of them broad and accompanied by shrieks of laughter, in which it was often difficult for our lovers not to join. Leon's friend was no prude; but there are things one prefers not to hear, particularly during a tete-a-tete with the man one loves. ' The situation became more and more embarrassing, and when they were taking in the officers' dessert, Leon felt he must go downstairs to beg the host to tell the gentlemen that he had an invalid wife in the room adjoining theirs, and they would deem it a matter of courtesy if a little less noise were made.

The noise was nothing out of the way for a regimental dinner, and the host was taken aback and did not know what to reply. Just when Leon gave his message for the officers, a waiter asked for champagne for the Hussars, and a maidservant for port wine for the Englishman.

"I told him there was none," she added.