Sometimes he did not notice them at all, but ate straight on, not knowing a delicate fricassee from a junk of salt beef; that was very trying.

But again he would take notice, and smile at her with the rare sweet smile for which she was beginning to watch, and praise the prettiness and the flavor of what was set before him.

But sometimes, too, dreadful things happened.

One day Marie had tried her very best, and had produced a dish for supper of which she was justly proud,--a little _friture_ of lamb, delicate golden-brown, with crimson beets and golden carrots, cut in flower-shapes, neatly ranged around.

Such a pretty dish was never seen, she thought; and she had put it on the best platter, the blue platter with the cow and the strawberries on it; and when she set it before her husband, her dark eyes were actually shining with pleasure, and she was thinking that if he were very pleased, but very, very, she might possibly have courage to call him "Mon ami," which she had thought several times of doing.