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"Well, let him have his coffee very strong; I heard Monsieur des
Grassins say that they make the coffee very strong in Paris. Put in a
great deal."
"Where am I to get it?"
"Buy some."
"Suppose monsieur meets me?"
"He has gone to his fields."
"I'll run, then. But Monsieur Fessard asked me yesterday if the Magi
had come to stay with us when I bought the wax candle. All the town
will know our goings-on."
"If your father finds it out," said Madame Grandet, "he is capable of
beating us."
"Well, let him beat us; we will take his blows on our knees."
Madame Grandet for all answer raised her eyes to heaven. Nanon put on
her hood and went off. Eugenie got out some clean table-linen, and
went to fetch a few bunches of grapes which she had amused herself by
hanging on a string across the attic; she walked softly along the
corridor, so as not to waken her cousin, and she could not help
listening at the door to his quiet breathing.
"Sorrow is watching while he sleeps," she thought.
She took the freshest vine-leaves and arranged her dish of grapes as
coquettishly as a practised house-keeper might have done, and placed
it triumphantly on the table. She laid hands on the pears counted out
by her father, and piled them in a pyramid mixed with leaves. She went
and came, and skipped and ran. She would have liked to lay under
contribution everything in her father's house; but the keys were in
his pocket. Nanon came back with two fresh eggs. At sight of them
Eugenie almost hugged her round the neck.
"The farmer from Lande had them in his basket. I asked him for them,
and he gave them to me, the darling, for nothing, as an attention!"
V
After two hours' thought and care, during which Eugenie jumped up
twenty times from her work to see if the coffee were boiling, or to go
and listen to the noise her cousin made in dressing, she succeeded in
preparing a simple little breakfast, very inexpensive, but which,
nevertheless, departed alarmingly from the inveterate customs of the
house. The midday breakfast was always taken standing. Each took a
slice of bread, a little fruit or some butter, and a glass of wine. As
Eugenie looked at the table drawn up near the fire with an arm-chair
placed before her cousin's plate, at the two dishes of fruit, the
egg-cup, the bottle of white wine, the bread, and the sugar heaped up
in a saucer, she trembled in all her limbs at the mere thought of the
look her father would give her if he should come in at that moment. She
glanced often at the clock to see if her cousin could breakfast before
the master's return.
"Don't be troubled, Eugenie; if your father comes in, I will take it
all upon myself," said Madame Grandet.
Eugenie could not repress a tear.
"Oh, my good mother!" she cried, "I have never loved you enough."
Charles, who had been tramping about his room for some time, singing
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