Volume Ii Part 41 (1/2)
”No, he ain't mine.”
”But you know him, don't you?”
”Oh! I guess I do.”
”Whom does he belong to?”
”To the man that owns the Tower.”
”Who is the man that owns the Tower?”
”Why, he's the bear, as they call him round here; but for all that he ain't so ugly as folks thought, the bear ain't, for he bought Guillot's house and gave him money too. Would you do that?”
”I don't know what you mean.--Is the dog with you often? does he know you--as he came to your defence?”
”Oh! he don't like me much; it wasn't me that he wanted to help; he wanted to bite you!”
”Oho! do you think so? Then I must find out why the beast should show so much bad feeling against me. You say his master lives at the Tower?
Where is that?”
”A fine big place over on the other side of the Marne, near Gournay. I say! there's a great old park there--bigger'n yours.”
”Really! I must see that; and the owner of the dog is probably that boor whom no one about here will receive except Madame Dalmont.”
”Ah! she's a kind lady, she is! she gives me cherries and sous; she wouldn't beat me with her whip--I've still got the marks of it!”
”If you had been beaten more, you wouldn't be such a little vagabond.
But I'll find out your name and your parents' in spite of you.”
”You'll be smarter'n other folks then! Good-day, madame!”
The little boy ran away with a mocking expression and Thelenie walked on, saying to herself:
”How can it be that a peasant's child has such lovely eyes?”
XV
TWO GENTLEMEN AFTER DINNER
Several days had pa.s.sed. Paul had paid frequent visits to the two friends in the evening, and his sombre humor was beginning to disappear.
His face no longer wore that forbidding look which intimidated the country people; as he talked with Honorine his voice became less harsh, his eyes softer.
The young widow, on her side, experienced an entirely unfamiliar sensation when the master of the Tower seated himself at her side. That sensation afforded pleasant occupation for her heart; she felt happier than ever before, and did not attempt to conceal her happiness, because she saw no harm in the interest which she felt in a man who had hitherto always been betrayed in his affections.
More than once Agathe had said to her:
”You ought to ask Monsieur Paul to tell us his adventures; then we should finally learn the story of the ravine. We should learn why he went at night to the cross that marks the place where someone was killed.”