She seemed wasted with disease, and her eyes were ringed with dark lines and glowed with somber fire.

Very rapidly the three saloons filled up.

There were some hundred customers, and they had seated themselves wherever they could find vacant places.
The majority were nearing the age of forty: their flesh was puffy and so bloated by vice as almost to hide the outlines of their flaccid mouths.
But amid all these gross bosoms and figures some slim, pretty girls were observable.

These still wore a modest expression despite their impudent gestures, for they were only beginners in their art, who had started life in the ballrooms of the slums and had been brought to Laure's by some customer or other.

Here the tribe of bloated women, excited by the sweet scent of their youth, jostled one another and, while treating them to dainties, formed a perfect court round them, much as old amorous bachelors might have done.