come, you are welcome! you who met in sorrow, have rejoined
each other in joy. May God send his grace on us all."

Zebede kissed Aunt Gredel and said, "Always fresh and in good health,
it is a pleasure to see you."

"Come, Father Zebede, sit at the head of the table, and you there,
Zebede, that I may have you on my right and my left, Joseph will sit
farther down, opposite Catherine, and Madame Gredel at the other end to
watch over all."

Each one was satisfied with his place, and Zebede smiled and looked at
me as if he would say: "If we had had the quarter of such a dinner as
this at Hanau, we should never have fallen by the roadside." Joy and a
good appetite shone on every face. Father Goulden dipped the great
silver ladle into the soup as we all looked on, and served first the
old grave-digger, who said nothing and seemed touched by this honor,
then his son, and then Catherine, Aunt Gredel, himself, and me. And
the dinner was begun quietly.

Zebede winked and looked at me from time to time with great
satisfaction. We uncorked the first bottle and filled the glasses.
This was very good wine, but there was better coming, so we did not
drink each other's health yet, we each ate a good slice of beef, and
Father Goulden said:

"Here is something _good_, this beef is excellent." He found the
fricassee very good also, and then I saw that Catherine was a woman of
spirit, for she said:

"You know, Mr. Zebede, that we should have invited your grandmother
Margaret, whom I go to see from time to time, only she is too old to go
out, but if you wish, she shall at least eat a morsel with us, and
drink her grandson's health in a glass of wine. What do you say,
Father Zebede?"

"I was just thinking of that," said the old man.

Father Goulden looked at Catherine with tears in his eyes, and as she
rose to select a suitable piece for the old woman, he kissed her, and I
heard him call her his daughter.

She went out with a bottle and a plate; and while she was gone Zebede
said to me:

"Joseph, she who is soon to be your wife deserves to be perfectly
happy, for she is not only a good girl, not only a woman who ought to
be loved, but she deserves respect also, for she has a good and feeling
heart. She saw what my father and I thought of this excellent dinner,
and she knew it would give us a thousand times more pleasure if
grandmother could share it. I shall love her for it, as if she were my
sister." Then he added in