The Opposite House: A Novel — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

12 Lhe Opposite House. The locks of the chests of money will no longer be watched. I suppose the son was again at the gam- ing-table yesterday? They say he did not arrive in time to see her alive. By the way, I expected to meet you yesterday at the Chénois’s rooms; she had a reception.” “Te At the Chénois’s?”’ yawned Horster. “Yes, you. Rumor says that for some time you have paid homage to the noble art, and most duti- fully attended Heloise’s triumphal chariot. Some gossips also assert that the flower-dealers are mak- ing big profits from this fancy. Well, is the news true?” The other quietly uncorked a second bottle and let the sparkling drops run slowly into his glass. “Of course it’s true,’ he said, with a careless smile. ‘It’s really too bad for me to be obliged to confess it, but, extre nous, you understand me, Lin- den. Why shouldn’t the fiery-eyed Circe bewitch me as well as everybody else—the many hundreds who have not half my advantages? ‘The ballet, my friend, is in our day the court of first instance to which Ekkehard and Don Juan must alike pay toll. I almost marvel that above apple and cross a little gold slipper does not shine—a slipper composed of all the names which, by a few extrechats, have pit1- lessly forced crowned heads to their feet! Prinz Lothar is never absent {rom the Chénois’s recep- Comicboook<s