Volume I Part 54 (1/2)
”Bless me! if the girl has her lodging and keep and was.h.i.+ng, it seems to me that if you give her a ten-franc piece every month she'll be satisfied. Do you think that's too much?”
”No, it's not too much; and I promise you to increase her wages if she serves me faithfully.”
”Then it's all fixed, unless Poucette don't want to go into service; but if she don't want to, why, we wouldn't like to vex the child. She'd think we was doing it to get rid of her; she'd think we didn't love her any more; and that would make her unhappy, and us too!”
”Poor people!” said Honorine, looking at Agathe, ”how devoted they are to one another! Their hearts are rich at all events! And the people who roll in wealth are sometimes very poor in that respect.--Might we not see Poucette, madame,” she asked the peasant, ”so that we may find out at once whether or not we may count upon her?”
”Well, yes! but just now she's at our little piece of land with Claudine, planting potatoes, because Guillot's got some work at Monsieur Luminot's.”
”Is your piece of land far from here?”
”Oh, no! not so very far; if you'd like to go there--you see I can't show you the way myself, and Mariette is doing something for me just now.--Pere Ledrux, you know where our field is.”
”Let me see! Pardi! to be sure I do; it's right alongside of Gros-Pierre's field, where he's set out plum trees that don't grow.”
”That's right; then you can take these ladies there.”
”Yes, yes! Pardi! while I'm about it, I might as well lose my whole day; it will go in with the rest.”
”Very well; continue to be our guide, Pere Ledrux, and let us go to find Poucette. After all, it will make us acquainted with the country.--Good-morning, madame; we are going to see your niece, and if my proposition is satisfactory to her, that arrangement will be made.”
”You won't be sorry, for she's a good girl. Your servant, mesdames.”
The two friends set off once more, still preceded by the gardener, who led them across the country, saying:
”This time it's in just the opposite direction; we have got to go toward Gournay.”
”Is it a long distance?”
”Faith! it's quite a little piece.”
”How does it happen,” said Agathe, ”that a man buys land so far from his house?”
”Well! mamzelle, sometimes one inherits it, or else he gets it at a bargain. I believe that Guillot got this piece of land of his from his father-in-law, but I'm afraid he won't keep it long.”
”Why so?”
”Oh! I have an idea that it's pretty well mortgaged! I've often seen Guillot going to Monsieur Jarnouillard's, and bless me! round here, when you say: 'He goes to Jarnouillard's,' that means that his affairs are in bad shape, that he needs money!”
”Poor people! But Poucette's uncle is a hard-working man, you said?”
”To be sure; but you understand, when you have to feed so many mouths--and then the potatoes being bad last year, and that was Guillot's only crop! When you count on a thing and it goes back on you, why, it's rather upsetting!--Tutu--turlututu!”
XX
THE ENVIRONS OF Ch.e.l.lES.--POUCETTE.--AMI
”We're heading now as if we was going to Gournay,” said the gardener, trotting in front of the two ladies; ”this will help you to know the way when you want to go to walk in the neighborhood; and especially if you happen to feel like eating a _matelote_; for Gournay's famous for them, you know.”