The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1893-08-25
AFTER THE SUPPER.

tain, like a misty cloud, descended upon
my memory, similar to the between acts
baize of fairy spectacles.
Nevertheless nothing is surer than
something did happen to me; many
things even. Everything proves it to
me. My coat on the floor, my cravat as
a nightcap and, above all else, if ever I
doubted it, my haggard face, fatigued
and pale.
Truly a fine businessl At my age,
eight and thirty years, to allow myself
to be surprised by champagne like a
%schoolboy on a holiday! Stupidity's no
name for it!
But what plaques me most is to guess
what I did last. night, particulars, you
know, as to the events of the evening.
Question my servant?
Perish the thought of it! Expose my
self to the blushing before a lackey! Be-
sides he would only be able to formu-
late theories from the hour of my re-
turn and-and my behavior on reaching
my bedroom.
I divine it, that behavior, tits enough.
They pretend that with a single bone
Culver was able to entirely reconstruct
an antediluvian animal. It remains to
me then only to find some analogous
thing to as readily reconstruct my ex-
istence for the last 12 or Is hours-a
suggestion, a hint, one or two indica-
lions, more or less.
Where find them?
Ah-h, my pockets!
A childish habit of burying everything
there clings to me still and will now
perhaps serve me well. Behold the mo-
ment of r~ummaging, then, like the Gull
prit that I am.
1 tremble guilty. What am I going
to discover?
Gingerly I slip two fingers into the
side pocket of my vest and draw out my
portmonnaie.
Empty?
By Jove!
In seeking to pick up my overcoat my
notebook falls, scattering upon the car
pet a heap of papers.
The first of these papers that catches
my eye is the slip of the Cafe Anglais.
The trump card of the nights misde-
meanor.
Thanks to this bill I learn Immediate
ly that the misdemeanor occurred in:
"Salon H." l could have worn it.
TITS always, some way. "salon IA" to
which l gravitate.
The total? Eight hundred and twenty
francs. Peste! I've not been stingy. it
appears.
How many were they, l wondci? Who
were they? My habitual friends, l.. j.
probable, but still-no?
An inspiration! This menu, in be-
traying their tastes, will also to me re-
veal their names. Let us try to de-
cipher it.
Huitres Portugaises-These are the
kind that Lucien prefers and that they
import from Arrachon expressly for him.
Lucien was of the suppers, then, it is
clear. So much for No. 1.
Potage a la puree de gibier-I greatly
deceive myself, or that potage is one to
which Maxine is specially partial. Max
line, then, for No. 2.
Filets de sole a la Joinville-Fernand,
to a certainty; an Orleanist flet, pure
and simple.
Canetons de Rouen a rorange-Noone
but Polastron for that, an out and out
Rouennais, he.
Salades de legumes a la Russe-'Tis
useless to ask if Semenow was there.
Bonnie a la Cardinal-From whom
could this have come? Stay, Marcel!
Who but Marcel is cousin to a cardinal?
Lucien, Maxine, Fernand, Polastron,
Semenow, Marcel-Behold my table re-
composed.
Women also were at that supper then?
Beyond a doubt. These scattered pho
tographs attest it. Female suppers out
or supperesses, if 1 may call them so,
have always a rage for distributing their
portraits. Henriette of the Varieties in
her costume of the Revue, her great
English coal hoppers squeezed into tight
French slippers. Quick, conceal thyself.
And Jeanne, the eternal, in powdered
hair and leering over her shoulder at the
risk of a wry neck.
The third-ah, the third, l do not
know her. IT'S strange!
Not a bad lot, either, the third. She's
even pretty. Small head, low brow, tiny
nose, a mite of a mouth. Nothing but
eyes-superb eyes at that! Lashes like
a fringe, and a genuine blond.
Deuce take it! No, I do not know her.
The little yellow curls that dance about
her brow look eve in this photograph
like a golden smoke.
Nearly a child, tools years perhaps,
at farthest. Dressed modestly besides.
A high neck robe, p~uritanical in cut, but
which only the better develops that
which it envelopes. Exquisite figure,
slim and 1.-THE as a bending willow.
Decidedly she is a very pretty little
girl. And-and see in her ears neither
pearls O. diamonds, nor sven on her
fingers a single jewel. The reason pos
sibly for her air Of disdain. !,
Disdain, did I say? This child, who as
vet knows nothing of life. vet seems al