CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

From Jacques Bastien's point of view, the thing was so outrageous that it was incomprehensible to him, as he artlessly said to the bailiff, "Bridou, do you understand it?"

"Why, bless me, yes," replied Bridou, with an air of a.s.sumed good nature, "madame, your wife, has made a present of your fir-trees to the sufferers from the overflow; that is true, is it not, madame?"

"Yes, monsieur."

Bastien, almost choked with anger and astonishment, at first could do nothing but stammer as he looked furiously at his wife:

"You--have--dared--what! You--"

Then stamping his foot with rage, he made a step toward his wife, shaking his great fists with such a threatening air, that the bailiff jumped before him, and cried: "Come, Jacques, what in the devil are you doing? You will not die of it, old fellow; it is only a present of about two thousand francs that your wife has given to the sufferers."

"And you think I shall let it go like that?" replied Jacques, trying to restrain himself. "You must be a fool if you thought you could hide it.

This destruction of my firs was plain enough before my eyes as I pa.s.sed.

You forgot that, eh?"

"If you had been here, monsieur," answered Marie, softly, for fear of irritating Bastien still more, "like me, you would have been a witness of this terrible disaster and the evils it caused, and you would have done the same, I do not doubt."

"I, by thunder, when I myself have a part of my land ruined with sand."

"But, monsieur, there is enough land and wood left you, while these poor people whom we helped were without bread and shelter."

"Ah, indeed; then it is my business to give bread and shelter to those who have not got it!" cried Bastien, exasperated; "upon my word of honour, it is making a tool of me. Do you hear her, Bridou?"

"You know very well, old fellow, that ladies understand nothing about business, and they had better not meddle with it at all, ha, ha, ha!

especially in cutting wood," replied the bailiff with a mellifluous giggle.

"But did I tell her to meddle with it?" replied Jacques Bastien, whose fury continued to rise; "could I suppose she would ever have the audacity to--But no, no, there is something else at the bottom of it, she must have her head turned. Ah, by thunder! I came just in time. By this sample, it appears that wonderful things have been going on here in my absence. Come, come, I shall have trouble enough; fortunately I am equal to it, and I have a solid fist."

Marie, looking up at Jacques with an expression of supplicating sweetness, said to him:

"I cannot regret what I have done, monsieur, only I do regret that an act which seems to me to merit your approval, should cause you such keen disappointment and annoyance. Besides," added the young woman, trying to smile, "I am certain that you will forget this trouble when you learn how courageously Frederick has behaved at the time of the overflow. At the risk of his life, he saved Jean Francois and his wife and children from certain death. Two other families of the valley were also--"

"Eh, by G.o.d's thunder! it is precisely because he paid with his own person that you did not need to make yourself so generous at my expense, and pay out of my purse," cried the b.o.o.by, interrupting his wife.

"How," replied Marie, confounded by this reproach, "did you know that Frederick--"

"Had gone, like so many others, to the aid of the inundated families?

Zounds! I was bored with that talk in Pont Brillant. That is a fine affair indeed. Who forced him to do it? If he did it, it was because it suited him to do it. Oh, well, so much the better for him. Besides, the newspapers are full of such tricks. And yet, if the name of my son had at least been put in the journal betimes, that would have pleased me."

"Perhaps he would have had the cross of honour," added the bailiff, with a bantering, sarcastic air.

"Besides, we must have a talk about my son, and a serious one,"

continued Jacques Bastien. "My companion, Bridou, will also have a say in that."

"I do not understand you," answered Marie, stammering. "What relation can M. Bridou possibly have with Frederick?"

"You will know, because we will have a talk to-morrow, and with you, and about a good deal. Do not think you understand that this affair of my thousand fir-trees will pa.s.s like a letter by the post. But it is six o'clock, let us have dinner."

And he rang.

At these words, Marie remembered the silver plate carried to the city and sold in the absence and without the knowledge of her husband. Had she been alone with Jacques, she would have endured his threats and injuries and anger, but when she thought of the transports of rage he would yield to before her son and David, she was frightened at the possible consequences of such a scene, and with reason.

Jacques Bastien went on talking:

"Have you had a good fire made in Bridou's chamber? I wrote to you that he would spend several days here."

"I thought you would share your chamber with M. Bridou," replied Madame Bastien. "Unless you do, I do not see how I can lodge the gentleman."

"What! there is a chamber up-stairs."

"But that is occupied by my son's preceptor."

"You are very fine, you are, with your preceptor. Ah, well, 'tis easy to take him by the shoulders and put him out, your Latin spitter, and there's the room."

"I should be distressed to put him out," said the bailiff. "I would prefer to go back."

"Come, come, Bridou, evidently we are going to quarrel," replied Jacques.

Then, turning to his wife, he said, angrily:

"What! I warned you this morning that Bridou would spend several days here, and nothing is prepared?"

"But, monsieur, I ask again, where do you wish me to put the preceptor of my son if M. Bridou occupies his chamber?"

"The preceptor of my son," repeated Jacques, puffing up his cheeks and shrugging his shoulders; "you have only that in your mouth, playing the d.u.c.h.ess. Ah well! the preceptor of your son can sleep with Andre, it won't kill him."

"But surely, monsieur," said Marie, "you do not think that--"

"Come now, do not provoke me, or I will go and tell your Latin spitter to march out of my house this instant, and see if I follow him on the road to Pont Brillant. It will amount in the end to my not being master of my own house, by G.o.d's thunder!"

Marie trembled. She knew M. Bastien capable of driving the preceptor brutally out of the house. She was silent a moment, then remembering the untiring devotion of David, she replied, trying to restrain her tears:

"Very well, monsieur, the preceptor will share Andre's chamber."

"Indeed," answered Jacques, with a sarcastic air, "that is very fortunate."

"And besides, you see, madame," added the bailiff with a conciliatory air, "a preceptor is little more than a servant, not anything more, because it is a person who takes wages, or I would not have him put out by the shoulders thus, as this great buffoon Jacques says."

Marguerite entered at this moment to announce dinner. Bridou took off his blouse, pa.s.sed his hand through his yellow hair, and with a coquettish air offered his arm to Madame Bastien, who trembled in every limb.

Jacques Bastien threw his holly stick in a corner, kept on his blouse, and followed his wife and the bailiff to the dining-room.