room to change my dress for dinner, and hearing
a great clatter behind me on the stairs, I turned round and saw that all
the children were following me behind their father; to do me honor, no
doubt.

My windows looked out onto a plain, bare, interminable plain, an ocean
of grass, of wheat, and of oats, without a clump of trees or any rising
ground, a striking and melancholy picture of the life which they must be
leading in that house.

A bell rang; it was for dinner, and so I went downstairs. Madame Radevin
took my arm in a ceremonious manner, and we went into the dining-room. A
footman wheeled in the old man's armchair, who gave a greedy and curious
look at the dessert, as he with difficulty turned his shaking head from
one dish to the other.

Simon rubbed his hands: "You will be amused," he said; and all the
children understood that I was going to be indulged with the sight of
their greedy grandfather, and they began to laugh accordingly, while
their mother merely smiled and shrugged her shoulders, and Simon, making
a speaking trumpet of his hands, shouted at the old man: "This evening
there is sweet rice cream," and the wrinkled face of the grandfather
brightened, and he trembled more violently all over, showing that he had
understood and was very pleased. The dinner began.

"Just look!" Simon whispered. The grandfather did not like the soup, and
he refused to eat it; but he was made to, on account of his health, and
the footman forced the spoon into his mouth, while the old man blew
energetically, so as not to swallow the soup, which was thus scattered
like a stream of water onto the table and over his neighbors. The
children shook with delight at the spectacle, while their father, who
was also amused, said: "Is not the old man funny?"

During the whole meal, they were all taken up solely with him. He
devoured the dishes which were put on the table, with his eyes, and he
tried to seize them and pull them to himself with his trembling hands.
They put them almost within his reach, to see his useless efforts, his
trembling clutches at them, the piteous appeal of his whole nature, of
his eyes, of his mouth and of his nose as he smelt them, and he
slobbered onto his table napkin with eagerness, while uttering
inarticulate grunts. And the whole family was highly amused at this
horrible and grotesque scene.

Then they put a tiny morsel onto his plate, which he ate with feverish
gluttony, in order to get something m