looked in. I could not see at first because there was a bright light in the hall and it was dark in the room. Then I saw the nurse sitting by the bed and Catherine's head on a pillow, and she all flat under the sheet. The nurse put her finger to her lips, then stood up and came to the door.
"How is she?" I asked.
"She's all right," the nurse said. "You should go and have your supper and then come back if you wish."
I went down the hall and then down the stairs and out the door of the hospital and down the dark street in the rain to the café. It was brightly lighted inside and there were many people at the tables. I did not see a place to sit, and a waiter came up to me and took my wet coat and hat and showed me a place at a table across from an elderly man who was drinking beer and reading the evening paper. I sat down and asked the waiter what the plat du jour was.
"Veal stew—but it is finished."
"What can I have to eat?"
"Ham and eggs, eggs with cheese, or choucroute."
"I had choucroute this noon," I said.
"That's true," he said. "That's true. You ate choucroute this noon." He was a middle-aged man with a bald top to his head and his hair slicked over it, He had a kind face.
"What do you want? Ham and eggs or eggs with cheese?"
"Ham and eggs," I said, "and beer."
"A demi-blonde?"
"Yes," I said.
"I remembered," he said. "You took a demi-blonde this noon."
I ate the ham and eggs and drank the beer. The ham
