The little boys hung back and stared at him; they never had known him really well.
Their mother stood up and went to meet him, across the wide room. "You've had a horrid journey," she said.
"I've been fifty hours in the train," he answered. "Hallo, small boys, there!"
"Toto," said Zizi, "he's going to be a soldier!"
"Oh, Zizi!" said Toto.
The bigger boy came over to his father. "I know a chap," he said, "it's the son of a friend of mademoiselle's, whose father is dead and cannot be a soldier."
"Poor chap," said his father.
His wife said, "Old Denis has got your things together. All the other men-servants are gone. He has put you something to eat on the dining-room table."
He said, "Will you come with me, do you mind? I've things to say to you, and there is so little time."
But when they sat together at one corner of the big shining table, he did not seem to know what to say. He tried to eat, but it seemed as if he could not eat. He pushed the plate away and leaned his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.