Oh! those Fromonts!--How large a place they filled at that wedding! They were all there with their wives, their children, their friends, their friends' friends.

One would have said that one of themselves was being married.

Who had a word to say of the Rislers or the Chebes?
Why, he--he, the father, had not even been presented!--And the little man's rage was redoubled by the attitude of Madame Chebe, smiling maternally upon one and all in her scarab-hued dress.
Furthermore, there were at this, as at almost all wedding-parties, two distinct currents which came together but without mingling.

One of the two soon gave place to the other.

The Fromonts, who irritated Monsieur Chebe so much and who formed the aristocracy of the ball, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the syndic of the solicitors, a famous chocolate-manufacturer and member of the Corps Legislatif, and the old millionaire Gardinois, all retired shortly after midnight.