Chapter I: Foreword

In the rooms of my friend Otto Struve there hangs a parrot cage containing a somewhat dejected-looking lark. It was given to him by Gustave Garnier, the man who took the Prix de Rome last year—or was it the year before?—and whose picture of a girl was bought by the state for I do not know how many thousand francs before it had hung a fortnight in the Salon. A story connects the painter and the picture and the bird—a story whose name ought to have been “Célestin” but for that eternal unfitness of things which makes the comedy of real life an inverted image of the comedy of romance and demands for the story of Célestin the title of “Toto,” or, if it please you better, “The Rapin.”

H. de V. S.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. TOTO 1

II. THE GOOD ADVICE OF M. DE NANI 20

III. THE FAG END OF A NIGHT AND THE BEGINNING OF
A MORNING 35

IV. THE POETRY OF HATS 45

V. GAILLARD THE COMFORTER 62

VI. FANFOULLARD, MIRMILLARD, AND PAPILLARD 76

PART II.

I. IT IS NOT ALWAYS MAY 88

II. FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE 103

III. THE GENESIS OF “PANTIN” 117

IV. RECEIPT FOR STUFFING A MARQUIS 130

V. ANGÉLIQUE 141

VI. THE DEPARTURE 146

PART III.

I. GARNIER 153

II. THE SORROWS OF GAILLARD 165

III. THE SORROWS OF ART 185

IV. BOURGEOIS—BANKER—PRINCE 192

V. THE SHOWER 218

PART IV.

I. ADAM FROISSART 227

II. THE STORY OF FANTOFF AND BASTICHE 253

III. THE REVENGE OF M. DE NANI 262

IV. ENVOY 290

THE RAPIN.