At this Dubuche turned red, and stammered: 'Oh! what an idea! How
ill-natured you are! And, besides, just attend to your own business.'

Sandoz and Claude, seated next to each other, smiled, and the former,
beckoning to Dubuche, said to him: 'Lay your own place, bring a plate
and a glass, and sit between us--like that, they'll leave you alone.'

However, the chaff continued all the time that the mutton was being
eaten. When the charwoman had brought Dubuche a plate of soup and a
piece of skate, he himself fell in with the jokes good-naturedly. He
pretended to be famished, greedily mopped out his plate, and related a
story about a mother having refused him her daughter because he was an
architect. The end of the dinner thus became very boisterous; they all
rattled on together. The only dessert, a piece of Brie cheese, met
with enormous success. Not a scrap of it was left, and the bread
almost ran short. The wine did run short, so they each swallowed a
clear draught of water, smacking their lips the while amidst great
laughter. And, with faces beaming, and well-filled paunches, they
passed into the bedroom with the supreme content of folks who have
fared very sumptuously indeed.

Those were Sandoz's jolly evenings. Even at the times when he was hard
up he had always had some boiled beef and broth to share with his
comrades. He felt delighted at having a number of them around him, all
friends, inspired by the same ideas. Though he was of their own age,
he beamed with fatherly feelings and satisfied good-nature when he saw
them in his rooms, around him, hand in hand, and intoxicated with
hope. As he had but two rooms, the bedroom did duty as a drawing-room,
and became as much theirs as his. For lack of sufficient chairs, two