“She repeats anything you like. It’s great fun; whenever she hears a cock crow, or the noise of a motor-horn, she puts up her little finger and says: Do you hear the music?’ She’s a perfect little love.”
Thérèse thought to herself; “I must try to listen to what they are saying: my head feels quite empty; what is young Deguilhem talking about?” She made a great effort and tried to attend.
“My men at Balisac don’t work like they do here: only four barrels of stuff, while the Argelouse men get in seven or eight.”
“Well, with resin at its present price, they really must be lazy.”
“Do you know that these people can earn a hundred francs a day sometimes? ... but I think we are tiring Madame Desqueyroux.”
Thérèse was resting her head against the back of her chair. Everybody got up. Bernard decided that he would not go back to Saint Clair. Young Deguilhem agreed to drive the car which the chauffeur would bring back to Argelouse the following day with Bernard’s luggage. Thérèse made an effort to get up but her mother-in-law prevented her.
She shut her eyes, and heard Bernard say to Madame de la Trave: “Really, that Balion pair are beyond everything! I’ll let them have something they won’t forget.” “Take care, don’t do anything in a hurry; we don’t want them to go away, they know a little too much: and then don’t forget the estates: Balion’s the only person who really knows the boundaries.”
And Madame de la Trave added in reply to some remark of Bernard’s that Thérèse did not hear:
“All the same, be careful, don’t trust her too far; watch her movements, and never let her go into the kitchen or dining-room alone.... No, she hasn’t fainted: she’s asleep, or pretending to be....”
Thérèse opened her eyes again: Bernard stood in front of her; he held a glass and said: “There, drink that: it’s a glass of port, it will do you good.” And as he always did what he had made up his mind to do he went into the kitchen, and proceeded to lose his temper. Thérèse heard Balionte’s raucous patois and thought: “Bernard has clearly been frightened: I wonder why?” At that moment he came back.