And she also accused her of drinking her vinegar. Everything disappeared; one could not even have a potato about without being certain of never seeing it again.
“You’re a regular gulf, my girl.”
“Give me sufficient to eat,” retorted Adèle boldly, “and then I won’t touch your potatoes.”
This was too much. Madame Josserand rose from her seat, majestic and terrible.
“Hold your tongue, and don’t answer me! Oh! I know, it’s the other servants who’ve spoilt you. Directly a simpleton arrives in a house from the country, all the hussies in the place at once put her up to all sorts of horrors. You no longer go to mass, and now you steal!”
Adèle, who had indeed been worked up by Lisa and Julie, did not yield.
“When I was a simpleton, as you say, you should not have taken advantage of me. It’s ended now.”
“Leave the room, I discharge you!” cried Madame Josserand, pointing to the door with a tragical gesture.
She sat down quite shaken, whilst the maid, without hurrying herself, dragged her shoes after her, and swallowed another prune before returning to the kitchen.
The breakfast, however, finished in the most affectionate intimacy. Monsieur Josserand, deeply moved, spoke of poor Saturnin, who had had to be taken away the day before during his absence from home; and, as he believed, in a sudden fit of raving madness, with which his son had been seized in the middle of the shop, for such was the story that had been told him.