"Look here, you! You've a pretty way of going your rounds! D'you know where I found your swine of a boy?"
"Where?"
"Why, with my daughter! I'll write to the prefect and have you cashiered, you swine's father—swine, yourself!"
This made Bécu fire up.
"Daughter, indeed! Why, she's always flourishing her legs in the air—and so now she's led Delphin astray? Hell and thunder! I'll send the gendarmes after her!"
"Just try it on, you thief!"
Then the two snarled in each other's faces, till, all at once, the strain was relaxed, and their fury dropped.
"We must have an explanation; let's go in and liquor," said Hyacinthe.
"I haven't a copper," replied Bécu.