Bouvard was shocked at seeing the animal maltreated.
The countryman, in answer to his protest, said:
“I’ve a right to do it; he’s my own.”
This was no justification. And Pécuchet, coming on the scene, added that animals too have their rights, for they have souls like ourselves—if indeed ours have any existence.
“You are an impious man!” exclaimed Madame Bordin.
Three things excited her anger: the necessity for beginning the washing over again, the outrage on her faith, and the fear of having been seen just now in a compromising attitude.
“I thought you were more liberal,” said Bouvard.
She replied, in a magisterial manner, “I don’t like scamps.”
And Gouy laid the blame on them for having injured his horse, whose nostrils were bleeding. He growled in a smothered voice:
“Damned unlucky people! I was going to put him away when they turned up.”