depart in less time than it took the others to reach the _légumes_.

[Illustration: Papa, Mama et Bébé]

He was hospitable too, and had a disconcerting way of inviting guests to
luncheon or dinner, and then forgetting that he had done so. One morning
a stranger entered, and after a brief conference with Iorson, was
conducted to the commercial man's table to await his arrival. The
regular customers took their wonted places, and began in their leisurely
fashion to breakfast, and still the visitor sat alone, starting up
expectantly every time a door opened, then despondently resuming his
seat.

At last Iorson, taking compassion, urged the neglected guest to while
away his period of waiting by trifling with the _hors-d'oeuvres_. He was
proceeding to allay the pangs of hunger with selections from the tray of
anchovies, sardines, pickled beet, and sliced sausage, when his host
entered, voluble and irrepressible as ever. The dignified Ogams
shuddered inwardly as his strident voice awoke the echoes of the room,
and their already stiff limbs became rigid with disapproval.

In winter, transient visitors but rarely occupied one or other of the
square centre tables, though not infrequently a proud father and mother
who had come to visit a soldier son at the barracks, brought him to the
hotel for a meal, and for a space the radiance of blue and scarlet and
the glint of steel cast a military glamour over the staid company.

An amusing little circumstance to us onlookers was that although the
supply of cooked food seemed equal to any demand, the arrival of even a
trio of unexpected guests to dinner invariably caused a dearth of bread.