With mock solemnity the three greeted Parpon and Lagroin. The old sergeant’s face flushed, and his hand dropped to his sword; but he had promised Parpon to say nothing till he got his cue, and he would keep his word. So he disposed himself in an attitude of martial attention. The dwarf bowed to the others with a face of as great gravity as the charcoalman’s, and waving his hand, said:
“Keep your seats, my children, and God be with you. You are right, smutty-face; I am Monsieur Talleyrand, Minister of the Crown.”
“The devil, you say!” cried the mealman.
“Tut, tut!” said Lajeunesse, chaffing; “haven’t you heard the news? The devil is dead!”
The dwarf’s hand went into his pocket. “My poor orphan,” said he, trotting over and thrusting some silver into the blacksmith’s pocket, “I see he hasn’t left you well off. Accept my humble gift.”
“The devil dead?” cried Muroc; “then I’ll go marry his daughter.”
Parpon climbed up on a pile of untired wheels, and with an elfish grin began singing. Instantly the three humorists became silent and listened, the blacksmith pumping his bellows mechanically the while.
“O mealman white, give me your daughter,
Oh, give her to me, your sweet Suzon!
O mealman dear, you can do no better
For I have a chateau at Malmaison.
Black charcoalman, you shall not have her
She shall not marry you, my Suzon—
A bag of meal—and a sack of carbon!
Non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non!
Go look at your face, my fanfaron,
For my daughter and you would be night and day,
Non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non,
Not for your chateau at Malmaison,
Non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non,
You shall not marry her, my Suzon.”
A better weapon than his waspish tongue was Parpon’s voice, for it, before all, was persuasive. A few years before, none of them had ever heard him sing. An accident discovered it to them, and afterwards he sang for them but little, and never when it was expected of him. He might be the minister of a dauphin or a fool, but he was now only the mysterious Parpon who thrilled them. All the soul cramped in the small body was showing in his eyes, as on that day when he had sung before the Louis Quinze.
A face suddenly appeared at a little door just opposite him. No one but Parpon saw it. It belonged to Madelinette, the daughter of Lajeunesse, who had a voice of merit. More than once the dwarf had stopped to hear her singing as he passed the smithy. She sang only the old chansons and the songs of the voyageurs, with a far greater sweetness and richness, however, than any in the parish; and the Cure could detect her among all others at mass. She had been taught her notes, but that had only opened up possibilities, and fretted her till she was unhappy. What she felt she could not put into her singing, for the machinery, unknown and tyrannical, was not hers. Twice before she had heard Parpon sing—at mass when the miller’s wife was buried, and he, forgetting the world, had poured forth all his beautiful voice; and on that notable night before the Louis Quinze. If he would but teach her those songs of his, give her that sound of an organ in her throat! Parpon guessed what she thought. Well, he would see what could be done, if the blacksmith joined Valmond’s standard.