“I have knocked off for the day. I finished a job at Versailles and I am going on to Paris with the royal procession as soon as it comes along.”
“What procession?”
“Why, the King and the Queen and the little Prince, who are returning to the city with the Fishmarket women and two hundred Assemblymen, all under protection of Gen. Lafayette and the National Guard.”
“So the fat old gentleman has decided to come to town?”
“They made him do it.”
“I suspected so when I started for Paris at three this morning.”
“Hello! did you leave Versailles at three without any curiosity about what was going off?”
“No, no, I itched to know what the gent was up to, being an acquaintance, a chum of mine, by the way, though I am not bragging; but you know, old man, one must get on with the work. I have a wife and children to provide for, and it is no joke now. I am not working at the royal forge.”
The listener let what he heard pass without putting any questions.
“So, it was on a pressing job that you went back to Paris?” he only inquired.