'Oh! bother it all, so there is!' he exclaimed with an expression of annoyance.
And as Abbé Faujas stepped back and glanced at him questioningly, he added:
'I am extremely vexed, sir. Father Bourrette is a very worthy man, but it is a little unfortunate that you commissioned him to attend to your business. He hasn't got the least bit of a head. If we had only known of your coming, we should have had everything ready; but, as it is, we shall have to clear the whole place out for you. We have been using the rooms, you see; we have stowed all our crop of fruit, figs, apples and raisins, away on the floors upstairs.'
The priest listened with a surprise which all his politeness did not enable him to hide.
'But it won't take us long,' Mouret continued. 'If you don't mind waiting for ten minutes, Rose will get the rooms cleared for you.'
An anxious expression appeared on the priest's cadaverous face.
'The rooms are furnished, are they not?' he asked.
'Not at all; there isn't a bit of furniture in them. We have never occupied them.'
Thereupon the Abbé lost his self-control, and his grey eyes flashed as he exclaimed with suppressed indignation:
'But I gave distinct instructions in my letter that furnished rooms were to be taken. I could scarcely bring my furniture along with me in my trunk.'