EXERCISE XI

(L'Avare, pp. 425-7.)

Harpagon is a miser. Valère is his steward, and Maître Jacques is his cook and coachman. The miser is going to give a supper, and has invited eight or ten people. He wishes good cheer, but does not wish to give much money. He thinks that a clever man can make good cheer with little money. Valère, the steward, says the same thing. Ten people have been invited, but the miser says that if there is enough to eat for eight, there will be plenty for ten. There is nothing more hurtful to men than to eat to excess. Frugality must rule in the repasts we give, and one must remember the maxim, "We should eat to live, and not live to eat." \Harpagon will have these words cut in letters of gold on his mantel-piece. Maître Jacques will not fill the table with soups, entrées and roasts, but with those things of which people eat sparingly. Then the miser addresses the coachman, tells him to clean the carriage, and have the horses ready to drive to the fair. But Harpagon makes the poor brutes observe such strict fasting that they cannot walk. Poor Maître Jacques has pity on his neighbour. It breaks his heart to see his horses suffer. They cannot drag themselves along, and he has not the heart to whip them.