“Rightly too. Have the new commissaries come yet?
“Only citizen Cochefer. He is waiting upstairs for the others.”
“And Capet?”
“He is all safe. Citizen Heron came to see him, and then he told me to lock the little vermin up in the inner room. Citizen Cochefer had just arrived by that time, and he has remained in charge.”
During all this while the man with the chest on his back was waiting for orders. Bent nearly double, he was grumbling audibly at his uncomfortable position.
“Does the citizen want to break my back?” he muttered.
“We had best get along—quoi?”
He asked if he should begin to carry the furniture out into the street.
“Two sous have I got to pay every ten minutes to the lad who holds my nag,” he said, muttering under his breath; “we shall be all night at this rate.”
“Begin to load then,” commanded Simon gruffly. “Here!—begin with this sofa.”