The good sisters took from their belts the long rosaries, made
simultaneously the sign of the cross and suddenly their lips began
to move rapidly, becoming more and more accelerated, precipitating
their vague murmur as if in a race of "orisons;" and now and then
they kissed a medal, crossed themselves again, and resumed their
swift and continuous mutterings.

Cornudet sat still and deep in thoughts. After they had traveled
for three hours, Loiseau picked up his cards and said:--"I am
hungry." Then his wife reached out for a package from which she
drew a piece of cold veal. She cut it carefully in thin and neat
slices and both began to eat.

--"Why shouldn't we do the same?"--said the Countess. Upon general
consent, she unpacked the provisions prepared for the two couples.
In one of those oval dishes, the cover of which bears a china
hare, to show that a hare pie lies inside, there were exquisite
delicatessen, the white streams of lard crossing the brown meat of
the game, mixed with other fine chopped meats. A handsome piece of
Swiss-cheese, wrapped in a newspaper, had taken on its fat surface
the imprint:--"Sundry items."

The two sisters opened a hunk of sausage which smelled of garlic;
and Cornudet plunging at the same time both his hands in the large
pockets of his baggy overcoat, drew from one four hard-boiled eggs
and from the other the crust of a loaf of bread. He removed the
shells threw them under his feet, on the straw, and began to bite
the eggs voraciously, dropping on his large beard small pieces of
yellowish yolk which looked like stars.