"And I'm fearfully hungry, too!" he murmured.
"It's always like that," replied Favier, who took his place on the left. "Nothing to eat when one is starving."
The table was rapidly filling. It contained twenty-two places. At first nothing was heard but a loud clattering of knives and forks, the gormandising of big fellows with stomachs emptied by thirteen hours' daily work. Formerly the employees had an hour for meals, which enabled them to go outside to a café and take their coffee; and they would despatch their dinner in twenty minutes, anxious to get into the street But this stirred them up too much, they came back careless, indisposed for business; and the managers had decided that they should not go out, but pay an extra three halfpence for a Cup of coffee, if they wanted it. So that
