Volume I Part 46 (2/2)

I was then shown to reat clatter behind me on the stairs, I turned round and saw that all the children were following me behind their father; to do me honor, no doubt

My s looked out onto a plain, bare, interrass, of wheat, and of oats, without a clu andin that house

A bell rang; it was for dinner, and so I went downstairs Madame Radevin took -rooreedy and curious look at the dessert, as he with difficulty turned his shaking head from one dish to the other

Simon rubbed his hands: ”You will be aoing to be indulged with the sight of their greedy grandfather, and they began to laugh accordingly, while their ed her shoulders, and Si tru there is sweet rice creahtened, and he tre that he had understood and was very pleased The dinner began

”Just look!” Sirandfather did not like the soup, and he refused to eat it; but he was made to, on account of his health, and the footman forced the spoon into his etically, so as not to s the soup, which was thus scattered like a streahbors The children shook with delight at the spectacle, while their father, as also a the whole meal, they were all taken up solely with him He devoured the dishes which were put on the table, with his eyes, and he tried to seize the hands

They put them almost within his reach, to see his useless efforts, his tre clutches at them, the piteous appeal of his whole nature, of his eyes, of his mouth and of his nose as he smelt theerness, while uttering inarticulate grunts And the whole farotesque scene

Then they put a tiny luttony, in order to get so ht in, he nearly had a fit, and groaned with greediness, and Gontran called out to him: ”You have eaten too much already; you will have no ive hian to cry; he cried and trehed At last, however, they gave hi, a very s, he reedy noise in his throat, and a movee a an to staetand ridiculous Tantalus, and I interposed on his behalf: ”Please, will you not give him a little more rice?” But Simon replied: ”Oh! no, ht harht over these words Oh! ethics! Oh! logic!

Oh! wisdo pleasure out of regard for his health! His health! What would he do with it, inert and tre care of his life, so they said His life? How many days? Ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred? Why? For his own sake? Or to preserve for soreediness in the fa left for hile wish left, one sole pleasure; why not grant him that last solace constantly, until he died?

After playing cards for a long time, I went up to my room and to bed; I was low-spirited and sad, sad, sad! I sat atof a bird in a tree, so thus in a low voice during the night, and to lull his ht of my poor friend's five children, and pictured hily wife

JOSEPH

They were both of them drunk, quite drunk, little Baroness Andree de la Fraisieres and little Countess Noeether, in the large roo blew in at the open , soft and fresh at the sa wo chairs, sipped their Chartreuse froarettes, and they were talkingbut this char intoxication could have induced their pretty lips to utter

Their husbands had returned to Paris that afternoon, and had left them alone on that little deserted beach, which they had chosen so as to avoid those gallant marauders who are constantlyplaces As they were absent for five days in the week, they objected to country excursions, luncheons on the grass, swi up in the idle life of watering places Dieppe, Etratat, Trouville seemed to them to be places to be avoided, and they had rented a house which had been built and abandoned by an eccentric individual in the valley of Roqueville, near Fecamp, and there they buried their wives for the whole su what to hit upon to aood dinner and chareat a this dinner themselves, and then they had eaten it merrily, and had drunk freely, in order to allay the thirst which the heat of the fire had excited Now they were chatting and talking nonsense, while gently gargling their throats with Chartreuse In fact they did not in the least know any longer what they were saying

The Countess, with her legs in the air on the back of a chair, was further gone than her friend

”To coht to have a lover apiece If I had foreseen this soo, I would have sent for a couple from Paris, and I would have let you have one” ”I can always find one,” the other replied; ”I could have one this very evening, if I wished” ”What nonsense! At Roqueville, my dear? It would have to be soether” ”Well, tell me all about it”

”What do you want me to tell you?” ”About your lover” ”My dear, I do not want to live without being loved, for I should fancy I was dead if I were not loved” ”So should I” ”Is not that so?” ”Yes Men cannot understand it! And especially our husbands!” ”No, not in the least How can you expect it to be different? The love which ant is allantries and of pretty words and actions That is the nourishment of our hearts; it is indispensable to our life, indispensable, indispensable” ”Indispensable”

”Iof o to sleep and when I wake up, Idreaed for Without that, I should be wretched, wretched! Oh! yes, unhappy enough to do nothing but cry”

”I am just the same”