"Well, my dear companion, have you found him?"
"Alas, no!" she murmured. "Have you any news of him?"
"Nothing positive," replied the steward, who wished to torment the poor woman; "but I dreamed of him all night long; he appeared to me in a dream, with his face pale and an exhausted air, like a cat who did not feel very well."
Father Lustucru dreams.
"In what place was he?"
"He seemed to be in a garden, at the foot of a lilac-bush."
Mother Michel instantly ran to the garden, where, as you may imagine, she did not find Moumouth.
During the whole day Lustucru amused himself by giving her false exultations, which were followed by increased despondency.
"Mother Michel," said he, "just now, in passing the store-room, I thought I heard a kind of meyowing."