Many times he had to watch shipments from the Dobouziez factory, and it was not without emotion that he saw the white cases slashed by a black brush with the decisive "D. B. Z."
But he did not evince the slightest regret at his change in position. On the contrary. He rejoiced in working for employers who were without any arrogance, these baes, who were so easy in their manner, instead of toiling in the gloomy salesroom of a Béjard or some other arrogant parvenu. In sight of the roadstead and the basins, the uninterrupted movement of landing and embarking, the gorging or disgorging of cargoes, the coming and going between the floating warehouses and the docks on shore, the constant fall of merchandise on the quay and into the bottom of the holds, commerce no longer seemed an abstraction to him, but a tangible and imposing organism.
Laurent often attended the meeting of the baes in the evening, in one of the cafés near the Port. Wagons and drays had been put in the sheds, mangers had been filled, litters had been renewed. The horses were chewing their oats, the accountant had closed his books, the huge buildings now sheltered no other worker than the stable watchman, and the great doors, real fortress gates, protected the fortune of the America from the attacks of thieves.
What clamorous parties, what epic unbosoming of yarns, what smutty stories! Gods! The rugged chiefs of the union, these baes who were hardly less ill-bred than their subalterns, let loose such stiff ones that, as they themselves put it, a peasant would have fallen off his horse had he heard them. It was fine to see them wash their mouths with a deep draught after an outrageous bit of wantonness that they had all enjoyed,
