Courtin paused.
"Go on," said the baroness, impatiently.
"As for the other, if I'm not mistaken, that's a better discovery still--"
"But who is it? Come, Courtin, tell me at once."
"No, Madame la baronne. I shall tell the name--I shall probably be obliged to do so--to the authorities."
"The authorities! Do you mean to tell me you are going to denounce my son?" cried the baroness, amazed and stupefied at the tone her farmer, hitherto so humble, was assuming.
"Assuredly I do, Madame la baronne," said Courtin, composedly.
"Nonsense! you would not think of it."
"I do think it, Madame la baronne, and I should be now on the road to Montaigu or even to Nantes, if I had not wished to warn you, so that you may put Monsieur Michel out of harm's way."
"But, supposing that Michel is concerned in this affair," said the baroness, vehemently; "you will compromise me with all my neighbors, and--who knows?--you may draw down horrible reprisals on La Logerie."