"Each of your names, gentlemen, is a whole history in itself," he said respectfully.
"Yes, the history of my time,--ruins," replied Monsieur Joseph.
"You are in good company," said Monsieur Alain.
The latter can be described in a word: he was the small bourgeois of Paris, the worthy middle-class being with a kindly face, relieved by pure white hair, but made insipid by an eternal smile.
As for the priest, the Abbe de Veze, his presence said all.The priest who fulfils his mission is known by the first glance he gives you, and by the glance that others who know him give to him.
That which struck Godefroid most forcibly at first was the profound respect which the four lodgers manifested for Madame de la Chanterie.
They all seemed, even the priest, in spite of the sacred character his functions gave him, to regard her as a queen.Godefroid also noticed their sobriety.Each seemed to eat only for nourishment.Madame de la Chanterie took, as did the rest, a single peach and half a bunch of grapes; but she told her new lodger, as she offered him the various dishes, not to imitate such temperance.
Godefroid's curiosity was excited to the highest degree by this first entrance on his new life.When they returned to the salon after breakfast, he was left alone; Madame de la Chanterie retired to the embrasure of a window and held a little private council with her four friends.This conference, entirely devoid of animation, lasted half an hour.They spoke together in a low voice, exchanging words which each of them appeared to have thought over.From time to time Monsieur Alain and Monsieur Joseph consulted a note-book, turning over its leaves.