Volume Ii Part 15 (1/2)
”Why, I think that it's an outrage, and that people in the country are even more unkind than they are in large cities.--Poucette, is it true that many men come here?”
”Oh! my word, mamzelle, I haven't ever seen anybody come but our neighbor Monsieur Edmond, and then two or three times his friend, Monsieur Freluchon, who's so full of mischief.--Oh! what a scamp that little man is!”
”Where did you hear all this about us, Pere Ledrux?”
”Bless me! a word here and a word there; you hear people jabbering; you may not listen, but you hear all the same. In the first place, when I'm working in Madame Droguet's garden, she's always talking about her neighbors, and I heard her say to Madame Jarnouillard the other day--or Madame Remplume, I don't just know which; in fact, I think they was all three there--and Madame Droguet, she says:
”'You know Monsieur Durand has let that nice house of his close by, almost opposite me; but what you don't know perhaps is that he's let it to a young dandy from Paris, who's come there to live all alone, without any servants; Mere Lupot opposite does his housework.'
”'And what can one man all alone do with that big house, where there's room enough for two families?' says Madame Jarnouillard.
”'Oh! you understand, mesdames, the young dandy has his reasons for going to such an altogether useless expense. He's settled here because he's on intimate terms with the two newcomers in the Courtivaux house.'
”When they talk about you, they always say: 'the ladies in the Courtivaux house,' as a matter of habit, because, you see, Monsieur Courtivaux lived here a long time.”
”Very well, Pere Ledrux; go on.”
”'Yes,' says Mame Droguet, 'he goes there night and morning; he's always prowling round there. Which of 'em is he in love with? no one knows; perhaps it's both.'”
”Oh! my dear love!”
”Hus.h.!.+ let him go on.”
”'And then,' says Mame Droguet, 'he's got a friend who looks like a regular good-for-nothing; it's the same fellow who had the face to knock at my door very late one night, to ask if we had seen his friend Edmond Didier; and with such a sly, impertinent air! humming his tra la la!'
”'Oh! what do such people amount to anyway!' says La Remplume; 'this gives me a very poor opinion of the women in the Courtivaux house.'
”'But that ain't all,' says La Droguet; 'guess who we saw walking home with 'em the other night--at quite a late hour?'
”'The two young men from Paris?'
”'No. Oh! they've made other acquaintances here. They came home arm-in-arm with Monsieur Paul and his dog!'
”'Is it possible?'
”'Did they have the dog's arm too?'
”'I didn't say they had the dog's arm! I said the dog was in the party.
And it was very lately, the night of the storm--don't you remember?'
”'Perfectly! I'm afraid of the thunder, and I stuffed my head in a b.u.t.ter crock so as not to see the flashes! I put it in so far that I couldn't get it out again, and I says to my husband: ”Break the crock, Jarnouillard, I can't move my head;” and he replied, as calmly as you please: ”That would be a pity; it's almost new!” So I was obliged to break it myself by banging my head against a wall.'
”'Never mind about your crock!' says Mame Droguet impatiently; 'we're talking about these newcomers. How does it happen that after living in this part of the country such a short time, they're already on intimate terms with the owner of the Tower--that disgusting man, that ogre, who won't speak to anybody? It seems to me more than extraordinary.'
”'It is very mysterious, that's so.'
”'I should say that it was suspicious even.'
”'Well! birds of a feather flock together, as the proverb says. The bear of the Tower must have found these ladies to his taste!'