[CHAPTER V.]
WHY THE POLICE AGENT CAME WITH THE CONSTABLES.
About six that morning a police-agent from the capital, accompanied by two inferior policemen, had arrived at Villers Cotterets where they presented themselves to the police justice, and asked him to tell them where Farmer Billet dwelt.
Five hundred paces from the farmhouse the corporal, as the exempt's rank was in the semi-military organization of the police of the era, perceived a peasant working in the field, of whom he inquired about his master.
The man pointed to a horseman a quarter of a league off.
"He won't be back till nine," he said; "there he is inspecting the work. He comes in for breakfast, then."
"If you want to please your master, run and tell him a gentleman from town is waiting to see him."
"Do you mean Dr. Gilbert?"
"Run and tell him, all the same."
No sooner was he notified than Billet galloped home but when he entered the room where he expected to see his landlord under the canopy of the large fireplace, none were there but his wife, sitting in the middle, plucking ducks with all the care such a task demands. Catherine was up in her room, preparing finery for Sunday, from the pleasure girls feel in getting ready for fun.