The curé started toward the lodge.
"Let us go to dinner," he said.
He suddenly remembered, with a vague and instinctive pleasure, the fine fish he had caught, which, with the chicken, would make a good meal for the poor fellow.
The servant was in front of the door, watching their approach with an anxious and forbidding face.
"Marguerite," shouted the abbé, "take the table and put it into the dining-room, right away; and set two places, as quick as you can."
The woman seemed stunned at the idea that her master was going to dine with this tramp.
But the abbé, without waiting for her, removed the plate and napkin and carried the little table into the dining-room.
A few minutes later he was sitting opposite the beggar, in front of a soup-tureen filled with savory cabbage soup, which sent up a cloud of fragrant steam.
III.
When the plates were filled, the tramp fell to with ravenous avidity. The abbé had lost his appetite and ate slowly, leaving the bread in the bottom of his plate. Suddenly he inquired: