"'Because there are gendarmes within two yards.'
"'Have you committed a crime, then?'
"'Yes, I snared two rabbits and killed a hare.'
"Thereupon, as I saw that he would not ask me many more questions, I hastily told him my misfortunes in as few words as possible, for you know that he's a man who always has something in his mind different from what you're talking about. You never know whether he hears you; he always looks as if he wasn't bothering himself to listen to you. It's many a year since I saw him close, for he lives shut up in his park like a mole in its hole, and I no longer have access to his house. He seemed to me to have grown very old and very feeble, although he is still as straight as a poplar; but he is so thin you can see through him, and his beard is as white as an old goat's. It made me feel badly, and yet, I was even more vexed than sorry when I saw him all the time I was talking to him walk along digging up all the weeds in the path with the little hoe he always has in his hand. I followed him step by step, talking all the time, telling him about my troubles, not to beg for his help—I never thought of such a thing—but to see if he still had a little friendship for me.
"At last he turned toward me and said, without looking at me: 'Why didn't you ask some rich man at your village to be your surety?'
"'The devil!' said I; 'there aren't many rich men in Gargilesse.'
"'Isn't there a Monsieur Cardonnet who has come there recently?'
"'Yes, but he's mayor, and it was he who tried to have me arrested.'
"He didn't say anything more for two or three minutes. I thought he had forgotten that I was there, and I was just going away, when he said: 'Why didn't you come to me?'
"'Why!' said I, 'you know very well why I didn't.'