Come."
A large smile overspread his face. "So soon! that's a good hearing," said he to
himself. "There will be an orgy tonight. I'll stand or fall by my luck. Faith,
it's time it came!" He deposited half of his funds in the hands of his well-
known friends Monsieur and Madame Binat, and ordered himself a Zanzibar dance
of the finest. Monsieur Binat was shaking with drink, but Madame smiles
sympathetically--"Monsieur needs a chair, of course, and of course Monsieur
will sketch; Monsieur amuses himself strangely."
Binat raised a blue-white face from a cot in the inner room. "I understand," he
quavered. "We all know Monsieur. Monsieur is an artist, as I have been." Dick
nodded. "In the end," said Binat, with gravity, "Monsieur will descend alive
into hell, as I have descended." And he laughed.
"You must come to the dance, too," said Dick; "I shall want you."
"For my face? I knew it would be so. For my face? My God! and for my
degradation so tremendous! I will not. Take him away. He is a devil. Or at
least do thou, Celeste, demand of him more." The excellent Binat began to kick
and scream.
"All things are for sale in Port Said," said Madame. "If my husband comes it
will be so much more. Eh, "how you call 'alf a sovereign.
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