"Well, since you don't care for it, faith! I'll eat it myself."
And, thanks to this clever management, he supped quite as well as, perhaps better than, if he had had a seat among the ladies. To be sure, he had to eat standing.
When the ladies had left the table, and the men came to take their places, Monsieur Batonnin, whether by accident or from absent-mindedness, imitating the worthies of whom we spoke a moment ago, found himself seated beside Monsieur Clairval.
"What! eating another supper?" queried the latter.
"Why another? I haven't supped yet."
"But, unless I am very much mistaken, when I looked in just now to admire the charming picture presented by all the ladies seated at the table, you were behind Mademoiselle Adolphine, with a plate in your hand, and eating what was on the plate."
"That is to say, I was standing behind Mademoiselle Adolphine to wait upon her, and I passed her whatever she wanted."
"I saw that you were eating all the time."
"Tasting, perhaps, but if you call that eating! And then, I was standing up. What one eats standing never counts."
"Well, my dear Monsieur Batonnin, I don't undertake to reprove you for it; on the contrary, you deserve to be congratulated.—Honor to great talents of all varieties! A good stomach is a blessing of Providence. The wealthiest of men, if his liver doesn't work right, is, to my mind, less to be envied than the poor man who can readily digest his bacon-rind and similar delicacies."