"Do you play at brisque?"
"I play at all games at which I win; they are the only ones that amuse me.—But here comes the veal. Let us attend strictly to business. There are idiots who say: Non ut edam vivo, sed ut vivam edo. For my part, I am not ashamed to say that I live for nothing else except to eat; for if I did not eat, I should die. Why, then, should not one do with pleasure, with sensuous delight, a thing which we are bound to do every day?—Let us fall to!"
Bahuchet, possessor of a stomach whose capacity was extraordinary, swallowed with surprising rapidity everything that the waiter placed between him and Plumard; he consumed, unaided, almost the entire contents of the dishes which he had ordered for two; so that his friend stopped him at last, saying:
"It was hardly worth while to offer to treat me, if you propose to eat everything!"
"Quid rogas, comrade? why do you eat so slowly? I concluded that you were not hungry, and I thought that it was useless to leave anything."
"If I ate as fast as you, I should choke to death!"
"Well, I will go slower now.—Besides, I want to talk with you; and when one is talking, one cannot eat; that is why I laid in a stock in advance.—Plumard, I am going to tell you something which will make you very happy."
"Bah! is it that our solicitor is going to give us a crown more a month?"
"Ouiche! I advise you to count on that! He is more likely to cut us down; he has already threatened to do it to me!—Come, think, think of something that might be of immense benefit to you."
Plumard raised his great eyes to the beams which sustained the ceiling.