The wonder what they would have said had they heard him made Nathalie laugh and answer, gayly:
“If you lived there you would be quite sure!”
He shook his head in doubt. “Now, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll walk out some day just when Fauvel isn’t expecting me, and have a good look round. If he’s put any bad work in, it will have to come out, I can tell him. Then if those fat ponies of yours have nothing else to do—” He broke off and looked scrutinisingly at her again. “They take you with them when they go and pay visits or that sort of thing, don’t they!” She coloured.
“Oh, I can go wherever I like. I think most often it is Félicie who comes with me, because she so often has to arrange with other ladies or to call at farm-houses.”
“Félicie? That’s the poor deaf young lady, isn’t it?”
“She is not always deaf,” she said in a low voice, looking down.
“Well, it’s an affliction, anyway. Why, what does she do at the houses?”
“She collects.”
“Collects, eh?”
“For the Church.”