"He was dressed in a short brown jacket, worn out at the elbows, and torn everywhere, dirty green breeches covered with patches, no stockings, shoes full of holes, and nothing on his head except a forest of black hair which gives him the look of an imp."

"Is the little fellow a beggar?"

"He looks like it, but I don't say that he begged of me. You are to find out whom he belongs to--what his parents do; then I will take it on myself to go to speak to them."

"Very good; I understand perfectly. You don't want me to whip the child?"

"Do nothing more than I tell you. Then there's a dog, a monstrous dog."

"Describe him, if you please."

"Mon Dieu! monsieur, I can't do it very well. I was on horseback and the dog tried to jump at me; I had to keep twisting and turning to avoid him. I think he was of the bull-dog breed; he was very large, and seemed very savage."

"Peste! what a savage beast! Wasn't he muzzled?"

"Of course not, as he bit my horse."

"He is unlawfully at large; I will complain to the authorities and have him impounded."

"Just find out whom he belongs to; I will attend to the rest."

"That may be rather difficult; didn't you notice any particular marks?"

"Oh! how you irritate me, monsieur!"

"I mean, didn't he have any blanket on him? They put blankets on some dogs, just as they do on horses."

"No, monsieur, he had nothing on him; he's white with black spots. I presume that he belongs to the little boy's parents, as he instantly undertook to defend him."

"True; your conjecture is very just; if he belongs to the boy's parents, the boy is his little master, and it was as such that he defended him.--Now let us come to the woman: some wretched peasant, I suppose?"

"No, monsieur, a lady; but I know who she is!"

"Ah! you know her, do you?"

"I don't know her, but I divined who she was: that Madame Dalmont, for whom you bought a miserable shanty down here!"

"Indeed! Madame Dalmont, the protectress of young Agathe, with whom our friend Edmond Didier is in love."

"Exactly. Did you hear how they talked about those two women at our party?"

"I heard--that is to say, no, I didn't hear. What did they say about those two ladies?"

"That they were creatures unfit to be received in society; that they led a scandalous life here, receiving no one but men, and, it is believed, lodging them at night;--do you understand?"

"What! they let lodgings?--furnished?"

Thelenie shrugged her shoulders impatiently and left her husband, saying:

"Don't forget what I have told you to do, monsieur!"

Chamoureau left the house by the fine avenue of lindens of which he was so proud. Reflecting on the instructions his wife had given him, he said to himself:

"I shall find the child; that ought not to be difficult. But as for the dog--it seems that he's very savage; I'll inquire about him, but I won't try to come to close quarters with him. What's the use; he'll never admit his culpability toward my wife."

Communing thus with himself, the new landed proprietor made slow progress, because he halted at every tree on the avenue, examined it and walked around it admiringly, murmuring:

"This fellow must be at least fifty years old--what do I say? eighty years! perhaps more! How in the devil can one tell the age of a tree?

That's something the geologists have never thought of--the _arborists_, I should say, or, better still, the wood-cutters. And yet it's a very important matter. When a man can say: 'I have on my estate several centuries of trees,' that should add immensely to its value. Let us see, let us see; that is something worth finding out--how to tell the age of a tree! Suppose I should find it out! I should think that I might then offer myself as a candidate for the Academy; I should be justified!"

Engrossed by his study of the trees, Chamoureau had not noticed a man who had entered his avenue and was walking toward him, looking to right and left, like one who is determined to observe everything.

This individual, whose dress was modest and suggested poverty rather than elegance, had nevertheless an arrogant manner and a self-a.s.sured bearing; his dirty round hat was perched on the right side of his head in true swaggering style, and the thick stick which he held in his hand was made to perform evolutions and revolutions which might have led one to think that he had been a drum-major. Adding to all this the face of a bird of prey, you will at once recognize Croque, Thelenie's brother, less dilapidated than at the time of his visit to his sister some months before, but not apparently in the most prosperous circ.u.mstances.

Croque approached Chamoureau, who, on raising his eyes, was vastly surprised to see within a few feet of him that gallows-bird, who tried to salute him gracefully, as he said:

"A thousand pardons, monsieur; but am I not on the estate of Monsieur and Madame de Belleville?"

"You are indeed, monsieur, for this avenue, with these superb lindens, also belongs to us; it forms a part of the domain which my wife and I recently purchased."

"Ah! monsieur, from what I hear, it must be to Monsieur de Belleville himself, in his own person, that I have the great honor of presenting at this moment my most sincere respects and compliments."

Chamoureau, highly flattered by the respectful tone in which the stranger addressed him, began to think that he was not so ugly after all; and, striking an att.i.tude as if he were on a pedestal, he bowed and replied:

"Yes, monsieur, I am Cha--I am Monsieur de Belleville."

"Who married Madame Sainte-Suzanne--a charming woman, of the utmost refinement, distinguished to her finger-tips, and with a most superior mind."

"Well, well!" thought Chamoureau, "he speaks well of my wife! He's the first one to do that!"

"However, monsieur," continued Croque, "I do not need to praise your excellent wife to you; for since you have taken her for your cherished companion in life, you must have learned to appreciate her numerous good qualities and her admirable perfections."

"Certainly, monsieur, I am acquainted with my wife's perfections; she has superb eyes, jet-black hair------"

"Oh! monsieur, physically she is incomparably beautiful, beyond doubt, but the physique is nothing compared with the heart, the mind and the virtues! There are many beautiful women in the world, but such virtues as those of your good wife are less common--if I dared, I would say very rare!"

"Thelenie must have rendered this man some great service!" thought Chamoureau; "he discovers too many virtues in her; I am not acquainted with so many as that.--May I know with whom I have the honor of talking?" he said, turning to Croque.

Croque drew himself up, twirled his cane so rapidly that Chamoureau for a moment feared for his nose, and replied:

"I am the Baron von Schtapelmerg. I imagine that that name is not unknown to you, and that your wife must often have spoken to you of me?"

"Baron von--I beg your pardon?"

"Schtapelmerg."

"Oh, yes! Schtapel--Yes, I have it."

"You know me, do you not?"