VIII
MY OLD WOMAN'S DEATH
Life tasted good to me after my illness, better than ever before ; the flavor of everything was enhanced, and I sat down to the world's table as Lazarus must have done, with a sharpened appetite. One day after hours, my foreman and I were in the shop amusing ourselves with a wrestling bout, when a neighbor looked in on his way from Morvan and told me that he had seen my wife there. I asked him how she was getting along. He said, "She was leaving when I saw her, making for a better world as fast as she was able."
"It won't be the better for her coming," said one would-be wit, and another cried, "Good luck never comes single; you stay with us, Colas, and she goes!" And he drank to my health.
I felt somewhat shaky, but not wishing to show it, I too held up my glass and answered, "When the gods love a man they take his wife away!"
But I could not swallow the wine, it seemed tasteless, and suddenly starting up, I seized my stick
