He could be seen
disappearing between two of the stands on the other side of the course.
Carriages were still arriving. They were by this time drawn up five rows
deep, and a dense mass of them spread along the barriers, checkered by
the light coats of white horses. Beyond them other carriages stood about
in comparative isolation, looking as though they had stuck fast in the
grass. Wheels and harness were here, there and everywhere, according as
the conveyances to which they belonged were side by side, at an angle,
across and across or head to head. Over such spaces of turf as still
remained unoccupied cavaliers kept trotting, and black groups of
pedestrians moved continually. The scene resembled the field where a
fair is being held, and above it all, amid the confused motley of the
crowd, the drinking booths raised their gray canvas roofs which gleamed
white in the sunshine. But a veritable tumult, a mob, an eddy of
hats, surged round the several bookmakers, who stood in open carriages
gesticulating like itinerant dentists while their odds were pasted up on
tall boards beside them.
"All the same, it's stupid not to know on what horse one's betting,"
Nana was remarking. "I really must risk some louis in person.
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