"I won't give a sou more than thirty!"

"Oh well! if that's so, give me back my hen this minute. Bless me! you want all for nothing, and even then you must make a profit; I ought to have known that I couldn't do business with you."

"Because I don't allow myself to be taken in!"

"No, but you take other folks in!"

"Pere Ledrux!"

"Monsieur Jarnouillard!"

"No harsh words, I beg."

"Give me back my hen!"

"Here she is. It isn't too late; thirty sous."

"I'd rather eat her!"

Monsieur Jarnouillard walked away, leaving Pere Ledrux with his hen, which he looked at with an ill-humored air, then abruptly replaced under his jacket. Whereupon Beauregard, who had been much amused by the conversation that he had overheard, walked up to the peasant and said:

"I'll buy your hen!"

"You, monsieur," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the gardener, surprised by the offer of this fine gentleman, whom he had not previously observed.

"Yes, I; won't you sell her to me?"

"Oh, yes! indeed I will; but it seems sort of strange that you should buy her, because you don't look like a dealer in hens, or eggs."

"In truth, that is not my business; but there must be a beginning to everything. I'll give you a hundred sous for your hen; does that suit you?"

"A hundred sous! pardi! I should think it did suit me! She's yours, monsieur."

And the peasant made haste to offer the hen to Beauregard. But he, taking a five-franc piece from his pocket, handed it to Pere Ledrux, saying:

"Yes, a hundred sous, cash, and here it is; but on one condition."

"What is it, monsieur?"

"That you will keep the hen at your place and take care of her."

"Ah! monsieur leaves her with me as a boarder?" rejoined Ledrux, pocketing the five francs.

"Yes; does that displease you?"

"Not at all--just the opposite; I don't ask anything better. Monsieur can flatter himself that he's bought a splendid hen."

"Does she lay often?"

"Well! that depends on the sun; there's times when she does. Shall I keep the eggs for monsieur, too?"

"No, no! I'll give them to you."

"You see, she eats a good deal, this hen does; why, she's always hungry; and what I get for the eggs won't buy enough grain for her."

Beauregard began to laugh as he watched the peasant's weasel face.

"Does it make monsieur laugh because I say this hen needs a lot of grain?"

"No; I was simply thinking that you understand business perfectly; but never fear, I'll reimburse you in full for all this fowl costs you."

"Oh! I ain't afraid, monsieur; I said that just to warn you, because I rather think monsieur don't belong round here?"

"No, I have never been to Ch.e.l.les until to-day."

"And I can guess why monsieur has come to-day!"

"You can guess?"

"I see by monsieur's looks that he must be one of Monsieur and Madame de Belleville's guests, and that he's come for the party they're going to give at their place to-day."

"I am, as you say, acquainted with the persons you mention."

"Very fine folks!"

"I fancy that you haven't known them long?"

"No, they've only been here about two months."

"And you know already that they are fine folks?"

"Oh! that's the way folks talk, you know. When a person spends a lot of money and pays, we say: 'They're fine folks.'"

"And when they are poor creatures who live on little or nothing and undergo innumerable privations, you don't say that of them, eh?"

"Ha! ha! what you say's true all the same, monsieur."

"Do you belong here?"

"Yes, monsieur; florist and gardener by trade; Pere Ledrux. Everybody knows me!"

"And I'll wager that you know everybody?"

"Well! it's sure enough that I go about everywhere in the way of my trade; and then a body talks a bit, you know; it sort of rests you."

"In that case, as I require some information, as I wish to know something about the society of this neighborhood, I think that you are just the man I want."

"Monsieur couldn't apply in a better quarter. As for the hen's board----"