Strangers to be taken in, and
sick wanting a friend." If no other guests came he was always sure
of the "apostles" to empty his table, and, while some simple dish
sufficed for himself, he ordered the whole banquet to be given away
to the poor. His choice wines, which he scarcely permitted himself
to taste, were removed from his table and sent to the Hotel Dieu,
the great convent of the Nuns Hospitalieres, for the use of the sick
in their charge, while the Bourgeois returned thanks with a heart
more content than if kings had dined at his table.
To-day was the day of St. Martin, the anniversary of the death of
his wife, who still lived in his memory fresh as upon the day he
took her away as his bride from her Norman home. Upon every
recurrence of that day, and upon some other special times and
holidays, his bounty was doubled, and the Bourgeois made
preparations, as he jocularly used to say, "not only for the twelve
apostles, but for the seventy disciples as well!"
He had just dressed himself with scrupulous neatness in the fashion
of a plain gentleman, as was his wont, without a trace of foppery.
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