Joly puts his hand over Combeferre's and squeezes. He can feel tears starting in the corner of his eyes. But the smile he gives Matelote is real and unforced. "It doesn't seem to have bothered them, either way. That was-- that was the wedding party?"

It occurs to him after he asks that perhaps it wasn't a wedding after all, it doesn't have to have been a wedding party-- but he knows it was, as much as he knew this building was the Corinthe. The soul of the thing, in both cases, is obvious.