Then consciousness left me, I leaned my elbows on the table and said adieu to myself.
But I had a confused idea that I was not alone in the tavern.

At the other end of the room stood a hideous group with haggard faces and harsh voices.

Their dress indicated that they belonged to the poorer class, but were not bourgeois; in short, they belonged to that ambiguous class, the vilest of all, which has neither fortune nor occupation, which never works except at some criminal plot, a class which, neither poor nor rich, combines the vices of one with the misery of the other.
They were quarrelling over a dirty pack of cards.

Among them was a girl who appeared to be very young and very pretty, was decently clad, and resembled her companions in no way, except in the harshness of her voice, which was as rough and broken as if it had performed the office of public crier.

She looked at me closely, as if astonished to see me in such a bad place, for I was elegantly attired.