: Glass of Bavarian beer]

For every evening he stopped last. He saw them carry in the tables, turn
out the gas jets one by one, except his and that at the counter. He
looked unhappily at the cashier counting the money and locking it up in
the drawer, and then he went, being usually pushed out by the waiters,
who murmured: "Another one who has too much! One might think he had no
place to sleep in."

As soon as he was alone in the dark street, he began to think of George
again, and to rack his brains in trying to discover whether or not he
was this child's father.

He thus became in the habit of going to the beer houses, where the
continual elbowing of the drinkers brings you in contact with a familiar
and silent public, where the heavy clouds of tobacco smoke lulls
disquietude, while the heavy beer dulls the mind and calms the heart. He
almost lived there. He was scarcely up, before he went there to find
people to occupy his looks and his thoughts, and soon, as he felt too
idle to move, he took his meals there. About twelve o'clock he used to
rap on the marble table, and the waiter quickly brought a plate, a
glass, a table napkin, and his lunch when he had ordered it. When he had
done, he slowly drank his cup of black coffee, with his eyes fixed on
the decanter of brandy, which would soon procure him an hour or two of
forgetfulness. First of all he dipped his lips into the cognac, as if to
get the flavor of it with the tip of his tongue. Then he threw his head
back and poured it into his mouth, drop by drop, and turned the strong
liquor over on his palate, his gums and the mucous membrane of his
cheeks, and then he swallowed it slowly, and felt it going down his
throat, and into his stomach.

After every meal he thus during more than an hour, sipped three or four
small glasses of brandy, which stupefied him by degrees, and then his
head dropped onto his chest, he shut his eyes and went to sleep: then,
having drunk it, he raised himself on the seat covered with red velvet,
pulled his trousers up, and his waistcoat down, so as to cover the linen
which appeared between the two, drew down his shirt sleeves and took up
the newspapers again, which he had already read in the morning, and read
them all through again, from beginning to end, and between four and five
o'clock he went for a walk on the boulevards, to get a little fresh air,
as he used to say, and then came back to the seat which had been
reserved for him, and a