They certainly must feed! Only
they would have to eat what they could get. Whereupon a round table
was rolled up in front of the fire, and the queerest of dinners was
improvised thereon. Zoe ran down to the gardener's, he having cooked a
mess of cabbage soup in case Madame should not dine at Orleans before
her arrival. Madame, indeed, had forgotten to tell him what he was to
get ready in the letter she had sent him. Fortunately the cellar was
well furnished. Accordingly they had cabbage soup, followed by a piece
of bacon. Then Nana rummaged in her handbag and found quite a heap of
provisions which she had taken the precaution of stuffing into it. There
was a Strasbourg pate, for instance, and a bag of sweet-meats and some
oranges. So they both ate away like ogres and, while they satisfied
their healthy young appetites, treated one another with easy good
fellowship. Nana kept calling Georges "dear old girl," a form of address
which struck her as at once tender and familiar. At dessert, in order
not to give Zoe any more trouble, they used the same spoon turn and turn
about while demolishing a pot of preserves they had discovered at the
top of a cupboard.
"Oh, you dear old girl!" said Nana, pushing back the round table.
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