"Your paths are no worse than those at Crozant, and the rougher they are the more need there is for people to help one another. I saw you plainly enough at Crozant put your lovely hand on Monsieur Emile's shoulder, to go down the mountain; oh! I saw it, Mademoiselle Gilberte, and I would have liked right well to be in his place!"
"Monsieur Galuchet, if you had not drunk beyond all reason," said Emile, "you would not concern yourself so much about me, and I beg you not to concern yourself about me at all."
"Hoity-toity! now you are losing your temper, are you?" said Galuchet, trying to adopt a good-natured tone. "Everybody is hard on me here, except Monsieur Antoine."
"Perhaps that is because you are a little too familiar with everybody," retorted Emile.
"What's going on here?" said Jean Jappeloup, entering the room. "Are you quarreling? Here am I, to make peace. Good-day, ma mie Janille; good-day, my Gilberte du bon Dieu; good-day, friend Emile; good-day, Antoine, my master: and good-day, you," he said to Galuchet; "I don't know you, but it's all the same. Ah! it's Père Cardonnet's man of business!—Ah! good-day to you, my dear Monsieur Sacripant; I didn't notice your greeting."
"Vive Dieu!" cried Antoine, "better late than never; but do you know, Jean, you are going wrong? When we only have one day a week to see you,—and God knows how long the week is without you!—you get here at noon on Sunday!"
"Listen, master——"
"I don't want you to call me master."
"What if I choose to call you so? I was your master long enough, and it would be a bore to me to give orders all the time. Now, I choose to be your apprentice, for a little change. Come, give me something fresh and cool to drink, quickly, Janille. I am warm! Not that I am hungry; they wouldn't let me go after mass, my good friends at Gargilesse! I must needs stop and chatter a little with Mère Laroze, and you can't keep your throat from getting dry when you talk without drinking. But I came fast, because I knew you would be thinking about me here. You see, Gilberte, since I came back to the old place the Sunday would have to be forty-eight hours long to allow me to satisfy all the friends who are glad to see me!"
"Well, my dear Jean, if you are happy, that consoles us a little for seeing you less often," said Gilberte.