This gorgeous exit changed her opinion of the man she had been unable to catechise. Undoubtedly he had snubbed her—that was the word she used in her mind—but his last act had enabled her, in the sight of several habitants and even of Madame Dugal, “to put on airs,” as the charming Madame Dugal said afterwards.
Thinking it better to give the impression that she had had a successful interview, she shook her head mysteriously when asked about M’sieu’, and murmured, “He is quite the gentleman!” which she thought a socially distinguished remark.
When she had gone, Charley turned to old Louis.
“I don’t want to turn your customers away,” he said quietly, “but there it is! I don’t need to answer questions as a part of the business, do I?”
There was a sour grin on the face of old Trudel. He grunted some inaudible answer, then, after a pause, added: “I’d have been hung for murder, if she’d answered the question I asked her once as I wanted her to.”
He opened and shut his shears with a sardonic gesture.
Charley smiled, and went to the window. For a minute he stood watching Madame Dauphin and Rosalie at the post-office door. The memory of his talk with Rosalie was vivid to him at the moment. He was thinking also that he had not a penny in the world to pay for the rest of the paper he had bought. He turned round and put on his coat slowly.
“What are you doing that for?” asked the old man, with a kind of snarl, yet with trepidation.
“I don’t think I’ll work any more to-day.”
“Not work! Smoke of the devil, isn’t Sunday enough to play in? You’re not put out by that fool wife of Dauphin’s?”