"But did I tell her to meddle with it?" replied Jacques Bastien, whose fury continued to rise; "could I suppose she would ever have the audacity to—But no, no, there is something else at the bottom of it, she must have her head turned. Ah, by thunder! I came just in time. By this sample, it appears that wonderful things have been going on here in my absence. Come, come, I shall have trouble enough; fortunately I am equal to it, and I have a solid fist."
Marie, looking up at Jacques with an expression of supplicating sweetness, said to him:
"I cannot regret what I have done, monsieur, only I do regret that an act which seems to me to merit your approval, should cause you such keen disappointment and annoyance. Besides," added the young woman, trying to smile, "I am certain that you will forget this trouble when you learn how courageously Frederick has behaved at the time of the overflow. At the risk of his life, he saved Jean François and his wife and children from certain death. Two other families of the valley were also—"
"Eh, by God's thunder! it is precisely because he paid with his own person that you did not need to make yourself so generous at my expense, and pay out of my purse," cried the booby, interrupting his wife.
"How," replied Marie, confounded by this reproach, "did you know that Frederick—"
"Had gone, like so many others, to the aid of the inundated families? Zounds! I was bored with that talk in Pont Brillant. That is a fine affair indeed. Who forced him to do it? If he did it, it was because it suited him to do it. Oh, well, so much the better for him. Besides, the newspapers are full of such tricks. And yet, if the name of my son had at least been put in the journal betimes, that would have pleased me."
"Perhaps he would have had the cross of honour," added the bailiff, with a bantering, sarcastic air.
"Besides, we must have a talk about my son, and a serious one," continued Jacques Bastien. "My companion, Bridou, will also have a say in that."
"I do not understand you," answered Marie, stammering. "What relation can M. Bridou possibly have with Frederick?"
"You will know, because we will have a talk to-morrow, and with you, and about a good deal. Do not think you understand that this affair of my thousand fir-trees will pass like a letter by the post. But it is six o'clock, let us have dinner."