Grace

He did not praise his own virtues any less, but he recognized the need to try another sin. It seemed to him that on the scale of the mortal sins, gluttony would be the most fitting to serve his plan, which was to get rid of his halo without doing too much to shake Heaven's confidence in him. This benign view of gluttony occurred to him as he remembered the mild reprimands he'd earned in childhood for eating too much jam or chocolate. Full of hope, his wife began to prepare fancy dishes for him, as delicious as they were varied. On the Duperriers' table, it was all fattened pullets, pâtés en croûte, trout with bleu cheese, lobsters, desserts, sweets, elaborate layer cakes, and fine wines, too. Meals lasted twice as long as before, sometimes three times longer or even more. It was quite a horrible, disgusting sight to see Duperrier, his napkin tied under his chin, his face reddening, his eyes heavy with satisfaction, chewing food, washing down sirloin and mortadella with a big swallow of claret, swallowing, dribbling cream sauce and belching in his halo. He soon acquired a taste for fine cuisine and abundant meals. He often scolded his wife for an overdone leg of lamb or an ill-chosen mayonnaise. One night, she got fed up with his grumbling and observed in a sharp voice:

"Your halo is hanging on very well. You'd think it was growing fat on my cooking, too! It looks to me as though gluttony is not a sin. The only downside is that it's expensive, but I see no reason why I shouldn't put you back on vegetable broth and noodles."