its color. When he
drank, his great beard, which matched the color of his favorite beverage,
seemed to tremble with affection; his eyes positively squinted in the
endeavor not to lose sight of the beloved glass, and he looked for all
the world as if he were fulfilling the only function for which he was
born. He seemed to have established in his mind an affinity between the
two great passions of his life--pale ale and revolution--and
assuredly he could not taste the one without dreaming of the other.

Monsieur and Madame Follenvie dined at the end of the table. The man,
wheezing like a broken-down locomotive, was too short-winded to talk when
he was eating. But the wife was not silent a moment; she told how the
Prussians had impressed her on their arrival, what they did, what they
said; execrating them in the first place because they cost her money, and
in the second because she had two sons in the army. She addressed herself
principally to the countess, flattered at the opportunity of talking to a
lady of quality.

Then she lowered her voice, and began to broach delicate subjects. Her
husband interrupted her from time to time, saying:

"You would do well to hold your tongue, Madame Follenvie."

But she took no notice of him, and went on:

"Yes, madame, these Germans do nothing but eat potatoes and pork, and
then pork and potatoes. And don't imagine for a moment that they are
clean! No, indeed! And if only you saw them drilling for hours, indeed
for days, together; they all collect in a field, then they do nothing but
march backward and forward, and wheel this way and that. If only they
would cultivate the land, or remain at home and work on their high roads!
Really, madame, these soldiers are of no earthly use! Poor people have to
feed and keep them, only in order that they may learn how to kill! True,
I am only an old woman with no education, but when I see them wearing
themselves out marching about from morning till night, I say to myself:
When there are people who make discoveries that are of use to people, why
should others take so much trouble to do harm? Really, now, isn't it a
terrible thing to kill people, whether they are Prussians, or English, or
Poles, or French? If we revenge ourselves on any one who injures us we do
wrong, and are punished for it; but when our sons are shot down like
partridges, that is all right, and decorations are given to the man who
kills the most. No, indeed, I shall never be able