ht! 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. Mme. Vauquer herself grew
calmer under the soothing influence of hope, and the mouthpiece of hope
was the portly Sylvie.

That day had gone by like a dream for Eugene, and the sense of unreality
lasted into the evening; so that, in spite of his energetic character
and clear-headedness, his ideas were a chaos as he sat beside Goriot in
the cab. The old man's voice was full of unwonted happiness, but Eugene
had been shaken by so many emotions that the words sounded in his ears
like words spoken in a dream.

"It was finished this morning! All three of us are going to dine
there together, together! Do you understand? I have not dined with my
Delphine, my little Delphine, these four years, and I shall have her
for a whole evening! We have been at your lodging the whole time since
morning. I have been working like a porter in my shirt sleeves, helping
to carry in the furniture. Aha! you don't know what pretty ways she
has; at table she will look after me, 'Here, papa, just try this, it is
nice.' And I shall not be able to eat. Oh, it is a long while since I
have been with her in quiet every-day life as we shall have her."

"It really seems as if the world has been turned upside down."

"Upside down?" repeated Father Goriot. "Why, the world has never been so
right-side up. I see none but smiling faces in the streets, people who
shake hands cordially and embrace each other, people who all look as
happy as if they were going to dine