Her kind blue eyes had that glitter in them which is caused by a
constant and continuous hunger. Six months ago they had only been
gay and kind, now they saw the world as it is, as it always must be
so long as the human heart is capable of happiness and the human
reason recognizes the rarity of its attainment.
"The fete of St. Matthias--my fete, mademoiselle."
"But I thought your name was Jean."
"So it is. But I keep my fete at St. Matthias, because on that day
we won a battle in Egypt. We will have wine--a bottle of wine--eh?"
So Barlasch prepared a great feast which was to be celebrated by
Desiree in the dining-room, where he lighted a fire, and by himself
in the kitchen. For he held strongly to a code of social laws which
the great Revolution had not succeeded in breaking. And one of
these laws was that it would be in some way degrading to Desiree to
see him eat.
He was a skilled and delicate cook, only hampered by that insatiable
passion for economy which is the dominant characteristic of the
peasant of Northern France. To-night, however, he was reckless, and
Desiree could hear him searching in his secret hiding-place beneath
the floor for concealed condiments and herbs.
"There," he said, when he set the dish before her, "eat it with an
easy mind. There is nothing unclean in it. It is not rat or cat or
the liver of a starved horse, such as we others eat and ask no
better. It is all clean meat.
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