“Have you slept well, dear aunt? and you, too, my cousin?”
“Very well, monsieur; did you?” said Madame Grandet.
“I? perfectly.”
“You must be hungry, cousin,” said Eugenie; “will you take your seat?”
“I never breakfast before midday; I never get up till then. However, I fared so badly on the journey that I am glad to eat something at once. Besides—” here he pulled out the prettiest watch Breguet ever made. “Dear me! I am early, it is only eleven o’clock!”
“Early?” said Madame Grandet.
“Yes; but I wanted to put my things in order. Well, I shall be glad to have anything to eat,—anything, it doesn’t matter what, a chicken, a partridge.”
“Holy Virgin!” exclaimed Nanon, overhearing the words.
“A partridge!” whispered Eugenie to herself; she would gladly have given the whole of her little hoard for a partridge.
“Come and sit down,” said his aunt.