This time it was the
charcoal dealer. Very well, he might keep the livery-stable keeper
company--it would amuse the fellows. Only, as she dreaded a scene, she
crossed the kitchen and made her escape by the back stairs. She often
went that way and in return had only to lift up her flounces.
"When one is a good mother anything's excusable," said Mme Maloir
sententiously when left alone with Mme Lerat.
"Four kings," replied this lady, whom the play greatly excited.
And they both plunged into an interminable game.
The table had not been cleared. The smell of lunch and the cigarette
smoke filled the room with an ambient, steamy vapor. The two ladies had
again set to work dipping lumps of sugar in brandy and sucking the same.
For twenty minutes at least they played and sucked simultaneously when,
the electric bell having rung a third time, Zoe bustled into the room
and roughly disturbed them, just as if they had been her own friends.
"Look here, that's another ring. You can't stay where you are. If many
folks call I must have the whole flat. Now off you go, off you go!"
Mme Maloir was for finishing the game, but Zoe looked as if she was
going to pounce down on the cards, and so she decided to carry them off
without in any way altering their positions, while Mme Lerat undertook
the removal of the brandy bottle, the glasses and the sugar.
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