Some of the open-air _restaurateurs_ were frying potatoes, and others were concocting more or less savoury messes of inferior meat and onions.

A pungent smoke, a violent odour, arose into the sunlight, mingling with the dust which was raised by the continuous tramp of the promenaders.

Rows of people, moreover, were waiting at each cantine, so that each time a party rose from table fresh customers took possession of the benches ranged beside the oilcloth-covered planks, which were so narrow that there was scarcely room for two bowls of soup to be placed side by side.

And one and all made haste, and devoured with the ravenous hunger born of their fatigue, that insatiable appetite which so often follows upon great moral shocks.
In fact, when the mind had exhausted itself in prayer, when everything physical had been forgotten amidst the mental flight into the legendary heavens, the human animal suddenly appeared, again asserted itself, and began to gorge.

Moreover, under that dazzling Sunday sky, the scene was like that of a fair-field with all the gluttony of a merrymaking community, a display of the delight which they felt in living, despite the multiplicity of their abominable ailments and the dearth of the miracles they hoped for.
"They eat, they amuse themselves; what else can one expect ?" remarked Gerard, guessing the thoughts of his amiable companions.
"Ah! poor people!" murmured Pierre, "they have a perfect right to do so." He was greatly touched to see human nature reassert itself in this fashion.