"For me?"
"You'll surely take me into service now."
"Where do you come from?"
"From down there."
The vagrant made a motion toward the plain. "I had three years. If my master had been good to me, and had not prosecuted me----"
"So you are just out of the Penitentiary?"
The man nodded, and smiled in a confidential way.
"And why should I, in particular, take you?"
"Well, just because it is so. Of course, after this, your servants will have an easy time. You'll get a new set throughout, and you'd better have me to watch the rest."
The veins swelled on Landolin's forehead, but he concealed his annoyance, laughed aloud, and called out in a commanding tone: