Hitherto, I had been in the habit of accompanying them, dressed in regular keeper’s costume; but now I stuck steadily to my carpentry work.
“Holloa, Réné!” said M. de Dampierre; “don’t you go with us to-day?”
“No, Monsieur le Comte,” I replied; “I have a lesson in mathematics to-day.”
“What?” he exclaimed, with surprise. “Do you study mathematics?”
“Yes, and history and Latin, also.”
“And is all this necessary in our days for a game-keeper?”
“I am not going to be one.”
“What then?”
“I mean to be a carpenter, like ‘Emile.’”
“I don’t know him.”