Strange world! The tears of the orphan making the widow weep for joy, if she only dared.
The pair sat down opposite each other at their little dinner-table.

They had a fixed hour for dinner.

It is well to have a fixed hour; it is in the direction of system.

Even if you have not the dinner, there is the hour.

Alphonsina was not in perfect harmony with this fixed-hour idea.
It was Aurora's belief, often expressed in hungry moments with the laugh of a vexed Creole lady (a laugh worthy of study), that on the day when dinner should really be served at the appointed hour, the cook would drop dead of apoplexy and she of fright.