"I say! Talking of that, you know that the Mouche girls are going to get five hundred francs?"
"You don't say so!"
The quarrel was at once forgotten. They all crowded up amid the pitchers.
Certainly! The road up there on the plateau skirted the field belonging to the Mouche girls, and cut five hundred yards off it. At a franc the yard, that made five hundred francs; and the ground that bordered the road would be enhanced in value. It was, indeed, a piece of luck.
"In that case," said Flore, "Lise has become a capital match, child and all. That big simpleton Corporal has been wide awake, all the same, in sticking out."
"Unless," added Cœlina, spitefully, "unless Buteau comes back again. His share, too, is finely improved by the road."
At this moment La Bécu turned round and nudged them.
"'Sh! Be quiet!"
Lise was coming up, gaily swinging her pitcher. Then the procession past the fountain resumed its course.