"No, thank you."
"And you, Monsieur l'Abbé?"
The Abbé Plomb bowed, but declined.
"Why, you eat nothing!"
"What! I? I may even confess that I am rather ashamed of having eaten so heartily, after reading this morning the life of Saint Laurence of Dublin, who, by way of food, was content to dip his bread in the water clothes had been washed in."
"Why?"
"Well, in order to be able to say with the Prophet-King that he fed on ashes—since ashes are used for lye; that is a penitential banquet which is very unlike that we have just consumed," he added, laughing.
"Well, my dear Madame Bavoil, that puts even you to shame," said the Abbé Gévresin. "You are not yet covetous
of so meagre a feast; you are really quite dainty! You must have milk or water to dip your sop in!"
"Dear me," said Durtal, "by way of high feeding I can improve on that. I remember reading in an old book the story of the Blessed Catherine of Cardona, who, without using her hands, cropped the grass, on her knees, among the asses."