The time came to pass into the dining-room.
"At my right, Captain," cried the Major, more and more beaming. "And I hope you will keep on giving us these new lines on Paris. We are not up with the times here, you know."
"Yours to command, Major," said Morhange.
"Be seated, gentlemen."
The officers obeyed, with a joyous clatter of moving chairs. I had not taken my eyes off Morhange, who was still standing.
"
Major, gentlemen, you will allow me," he said.
And before sitting down at that table, where every moment he was the life of the party, in a low voice, with his eyes closed, Captain Morhange recited the Benedicite.