Pagina 256 van 896

He was driven on, and other carriages came whirling by in quick

succession; the Minister, the State-Projector, the

Farmer-General, the Doctor, the Lawyer, the Ecclesiastic, the

Grand Opera, the Comedy, the whole Fancy Ball in a bright

continuous flow, came whirling by. The rats had crept out of

their holes to look on, and they remained looking on for hours;

soldiers and police often passing between them and the spectacle,

and making a barrier behind which they slunk, and through which

they peeped. The father had long ago taken up his bundle and

bidden himself away with it, when the women who had tended the

bundle while it lay on the base of the fountain, sat there

watching the running of the water and the rolling of the Fancy

Ball--when the one woman who had stood conspicuous, knitting,

still knitted on with the steadfastness of Fate.