"Gaspard! Gaspard!"
The smith sat up swiftly on his couch.
"What's the matter?" he demanded.
All the same, in spite of certain disquieting dreams, it struck him as
sweet and curious to be awakened like that by Susette. But he perceived
that she was alarmed.
"Some one hammers at the door," she said.
Then he heard it himself, that thing he had already been hearing
obscurely in his sleep.
"Coming!" he yelled. And he smilingly explained to Susette: "It's my
old friend, Joseph, the carter. He'd bring his work to me if he had
to travel five leagues." And he was for jumping up and running to
the door.
"Wait," cried Susette. "I'll have to go with you, and I can't be seen
like this."
"That's right," said Gaspard. "That confounded chain! I'd forgotten all
about it." So he called out again to his friend, and the two of them
held quite a conversation while Susette tried to make herself
presentable. But Gaspard turned to her as she shook her hair out for the
third time, starting to rearrange it. "Quick!" he urged. "He's in a
hurry. One of his horses has cast a shoe."
"You can't show yourself like that, either," cried Susette, playing for
time.
"Me?" laughed Gaspard. "I'm a smith. I'd like to see a smith who
couldn't show himself in singlet and apron!"
"You look like a brigand."