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 assumed 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 passed.
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 God'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 booby, 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 pass 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
duchess. 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 God'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, passed 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.