She did so, and he opened the box and took the pâtés out.
“Just try this!” he said, offering one to Claudine.
“I couldn’t eat it now, thank you, Gilbert,” she said. “To-morrow I’d enjoy—”
“No! Nonsense! Eat it now! I want you to!”
She shook her head, smiling.
“To oblige me!” said Gilbert in a grieved voice.
The idea of gracefully yielding, of doing something she didn’t want to do, never occurred to Claudine.
“No, thank you!” she said, more firmly.
“I insist!” said Gilbert.
That made her laugh, she thought he was rather funny, anyway, with his excessive garrulousness and his oyster Pâtés. She was about to answer him with a good-humoured joke, when she saw his face suddenly change, and grow convulsed with rage. She hardly heard what he said, she was so startled. He jumped to his feet and addressed her in a furious trembling voice, and suddenly took the pâtés, on their little frilled paper plates, and threw them on the carpet and stamped on them.