Come!"
He carried off Rastignac with him by main force, and they departed in
as great a hurry as a pair of eloping lovers.
"Now, let us have dinner," cried the painter, and every one drew his
chair to the table.
"Well, I never," said the portly Sylvie. "Nothing goes right to-day!
The haricot mutton has caught! Bah! you will have to eat it, burned as
it is, more's the pity!"
Mme. Vauquer was so dispirited that she could not say a word as she
looked round the table and saw only ten people where eighteen should
be; but every one tried to comfort and cheer her. At first the dinner
contingent, as was natural, talked about Vautrin and the day's events;
but the conversation wound round to such topics of interest as duels,
jails, justice, prison life, and alterations that ought to be made in
the laws. They soon wandered miles away from Jacques Collin and
Victorine and her brother. There might be only ten of them, but they
made noise enough for twenty; indeed, there seemed to be more of them
than usual; that was the only difference between yesterday and to-day.
Indifference to the fate of others is a matter of course in this
selfish world, which, on the morrow of tragedy, seeks among the events
of Paris for a fresh sensation for its daily renewed appetite, and
this indifference soon gained the upper hand.
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