A minute later we heard some one arguing with the hostess. This
extra stove was the matter in dispute. There was no more room left
for her on her stove. They had told her they would only need a
casserole, and she had believed them. If she had known they were
going to make trouble she would not have let the room to them.
Barque, the good fellow, replied jokingly, and succeeded in soothing
the monster.

One by one the others arrived. They winked and rubbed their hands
together, full of toothsome anticipation, like the guests at a
wedding-breakfast. As they break away from the dazzling light
outside and penetrate this cube of darkness, they are blinded, and
stand like bewildered owls for several minutes.

"It's not too brilliant in here," says Mesnil Joseph. "Come, old
chap, what do you want?" The others exclaim in chorus, "We're damned
well off here." And I can see heads nodding assent in the cavern's
twilight.

An incident: Farfadet having by accident rubbed against the damp and
dirty wall, his shoulder has brought away from it a smudge so big
and black that it can be seen even here. Farfadet, so careful of his
appearance, growls, and in avoiding a second contact with the wall,
knocks the table so that his spoon drops to the ground. Stooping, he
fumbles among the loose earth, where dust and spiders' webs for
years have silently fallen. When he recovers his spoon it is almost
black, and webby threads hang from it. Evidently it is disastrous to
let anything fall on the ground. One must live here with great care.

Lamuse brings down his fat hand, like a pork-pie, between two of the