You are the one who would look nice dressed as a young girl." However, he eluded her without replying.

He was covertly afraid of her, though they lived together in great intimacy, frankly exchanging confidences respecting their perverse views of life.

And he directed a glance of disdain at the wonderful basket of orchids which seemed to him past the fashion, far too common nowadays.

For his part he had left the lilies of life behind him, and reached the ranunculus, the flower of blood.
The two last guests who were expected now arrived almost together.

The first was the investigating magistrate Amadieu, a little man of five and forty, who was an intimate of the household and had been brought into notoriety by a recent anarchist affair.