“The Christmas-eve supper![8] Oh! no, I shall
never go in for that again!” Stout Henri Templier
said that in a furious voice, as if some one had proposed
some crime to him, while the others laughed and said:
“What are you flying into a rage about?”
[Footnote 8: A great institution in France, and
especially in Paris, at which black puddings are an
indispensable dish.—TRANSLATOR.]
“Because a Christmas-eve supper played me the
dirtiest trick in the world, and ever since I have
felt an insurmountable horror for that night of imbecile
gayety.”
“Tell us what it is?”
“You want to know what it was? Very well
then, just listen.
“You remember how cold it was two years ago
at Christmas; cold enough to kill poor people in the
streets. The Seine was covered with ice; the
pavements froze one’s feet through the soles
of one’s boots, and the whole world seemed to
be at the point of going to pot.
“I had a big piece of work on, and so I refused
every invitation to supper, as I preferred to spend
the night at my writing table. I dined alone
and then began to work. But about ten o’clock
I grew restless at the thought of the gay and busy
life all over Paris, at the noise in the streets which
reached me in spite of everything, at my neighbors’
preparations for supper, which I heard through the
walls. I hardly knew any longer what I was doing;
I wrote nonsense, and at last I came to the conclusion
that I had better give up all hope of producing any
good work that night.
“I walked up and down my room; I sat down and
got up again. I was certainly under the mysterious
influence of the enjoyment outside, and I resigned
myself to it. So I rang for my servant and said
to her:
“’Angela, go and get a good supper for
two; some oysters, a cold partridge, some crayfish,
hams and some cakes. Put out two bottles of champagne,
lay the cloth and go to bed.’
“She obeyed in some surprise, and when all was
ready, I put on my great coat and went out. A
great question was to be solved: ’Whom was
I going to bring in to supper?’ My female friends
had all been invited elsewhere, and if I had wished
to have one, I ought to have seen about it beforehand,
so I thought that I would do a good action at the same
time, and I said to myself:
“’Paris is full of poor and pretty girls
who will have nothing on their table to-night, and
who are on the look out for some generous fellow.
I will act the part of Providence to one of them this
evening; and I will find one if I have to go into
every pleasure resort, and have to question them and
hunt for one till I find one to my choice.’
And I started off on my search.
“I certainly found many poor girls, who were
on the look-out for some adventure, but they were
ugly enough to give any man a fit of indigestion,
or thin enough to freeze as they stood if they had
stopped, and you all know that I have a weakness for
stout women. The more flesh they have, the better
I like them, and a female colossus would drive me
out of my senses with pleasure.
