Part 7 (2/2)
”No, I am not the marquis, I am Jasmin, his first valet; and mademoiselle who is with me is not madame la marquise; she is Turlurette, her maid. But it's all the same, our masters or us, it's absolutely the same thing.”
”What a stupid thing to say, Jasmin,” said Turlurette, nudging her companion; ”the idea! our masters or us being the same thing!”
”I mean so far as the child we have come to see is concerned. They have sent us to find out about his health; can't we see that as well as our masters? And even better, for we have better eyes than they have.”
”You speak of your masters with very little respect, Monsieur Jasmin.”
”Mademoiselle, I respect and venerate them, but that doesn't prevent me from saying that they are both of them in a miserable state. What wretched carca.s.ses! They make me feel very sad!”
”Hush, Monsieur Jasmin, here we are!”
The carriage had stopped in front of Frimousset's house, and Jacquinot's shouts had put the whole household in commotion.
”Those are Cherubin's parents,” was heard in every direction. The little boys rushed to meet the carriage; Jacquinot went to draw wine to offer to his guests; while Nicole, after hastily was.h.i.+ng her nursling and wiping his nose, took him in her arms and presented him to Jasmin and Turlurette, just as they alighted from the carriage, and called out to them:
”Here he is, monsieur and madame; take him, and see how well he is! Ah!
I flatter myself that he wasn't as pretty as that when you gave him to me!”
”True; he's superb!” said Jasmin, kissing the child.
”Yes, he is as well as can be!” said Turlurette, turning little Cherubin over and over in every direction.
But while they admired her nursling, Nicole, who had had time to recover herself, looked closely at Jasmin and Turlurette, and then exclaimed:
”But I say, it seems to me that monsieur and madame ain't the child's father and mother. Pardi! I recognize monsieur by his red nose and his peppered face; he's the one who came to the bureau and picked me out.”
”Yes, nurse, you are not mistaken,” replied Jasmin, ”I am not my master; I mean that I am not the marquis, and that is what I shouted to your husband, but he didn't listen. But that doesn't make any difference; we were sent here, Turlurette and I, to satisfy ourselves about young Grandvilain's health, and to report to monsieur le marquis and his wife.”
”You will always be welcome,” said Nicole.
”And then you won't refuse to taste our wine and refresh yourselves,”
cried Jacquinot, bringing a huge jar, full to the brim of a wine perfectly _nif_, which means new in the language of the country people.
”I never refuse to taste any wine, and I am always glad to refresh myself, even when I am not warm,” replied Jasmin. ”But first of all, I must fulfil to the letter my dear master's orders. Nurse, undress the child, if you please, and let me see him all naked, so that I can judge if he is in good condition from top to toe--inclusively.”
”Oh, bless my soul! drink and let us alone! That is my business!” said Mademoiselle Turlurette, still keeping the child in her arms.
”Mademoiselle, I will not prevent you from looking at the child too, but I know what my master ordered me to do, and I propose to obey him. Give me Cherubin, and let me make a little Cupid of him.”
”I won't give him to you.”
”Then I'll take him!”
”Come and try it!”
Jasmin leaped upon the child, but Turlurette would not let him go, and each of them pulled him; Cherubin shrieked, and the nurse, to put an end to this imitation of the judgment of Solomon, adroitly took the child from both of them. In the twinkling of an eye she undressed him, and, handing him to the two servants, bade them kiss her nursling's plump little posterior.
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