simply said as they entered the dining-room:

'I have had such a good sleep; but you have been talking too much, and
have made yourself quite pale.'

In the evening, after dinner, Brother Archangias came in to have his
game of cards with La Teuse. He was in a very merry mood that night;
and, when the Brother was merry, it was his habit to prod La Teuse
in the sides with his big fists, an attention which she returned by
heartily boxing his ears. This skirmishing made them both laugh, with a
laughter that shook the very ceiling. The Brother, too, when he was in
these gay humours, would devise all kinds of pranks. He would try to
smash plates with his nose, and would offer to wager that he could break
through the dining-room door in battering-ram fashion. He would also
empty the snuff out of his box into the old servant's coffee, or would
thrust a handful of pebbles down her neck. The merest trifle would give
rise to these noisy outbursts of gaiety in the very midst of his wonted
surliness. Some little incident, at which nobody else laughed, often
sufficed to throw him into a state of wild hilarity, make him stamp his
feet, twirl himself round like a top, and hold in his splitting sides.

'What is it that makes you so gay to-night?' La Teuse inquired.

He made no reply, bestriding a chair and galloping round the table on
it.

'Well! well! go on making a baby of yourself!' said the old woman; 'and,
my gracious, what a big baby you are! If the Lord is looking at you, He
must be very well pleased with you!'

The Brother had just slipped off the chair and was lying on the floor,
with his legs in the air.

'He does see me, and is pleased to see me as I am. It is His wish that I
should be gay. When He wishes me to be merry for a time, He rings a bell
in my body, and then I begin to roll about; and all Paradise smiles as
it watches me.'

He dragged himself on his back to the wall, and then, supporting himself
on the nape of his neck, he hoisted up his body as high as he could and
began drumming on the wall with his heels. His cassock slipped down and
exposed to view his black breeches, which were patched at the knees with
green cloth.

'Look, Monsieur le Cure,' he said, 'you see how high I can reach with
my heels. I dare bet that you couldn't do as much. Come! look amused and
laugh a little. It is better to drag oneself along on one's back than to
think about a hussy as you are always doing. You know what I mean. For