'How? you go without your necessary food?'
'Necessary is a very elastic word, madame. You can narrow it down, so that in the degree above nothing it means luxury. My necessary food is sometimes thin air. If I don't deprive myself of that, it's because I can't.'
'Is it possible to be so unfortunate?'
'Shall I tell you what I have eaten to-day?'
'Do,' said Madame Bernier.
'A piece of black bread and a salt herring are all that have passed my lips for twelve hours.'
'Why don't you get some better work?'
'If I should die to-night,' pursued the boatman, heedless of the question, in the manner of a man whose impetus on the track of self-pity drives him past the signal flags of relief, 'what would there be left to bury me? These clothes I have on might buy me a long box. For the cost of this shabby old suit, that hasn't lasted me a twelve-month, I could get one that I wouldn't wear out in a thousand years. La bonne idée!'
'Why don't you get some work that pays better?' repeated Hortense.