That evening he made a round of the village of Bréauté so as to tell everyone. He found only unbelievers.
He was ill of it all through the night.
The next day about one in the afternoon, Marius Paumelle, a farm helper of Master Breton, the market-gardener at Ymauville, returned the pocket-book and its contents to Master Houlbreque of Manneville.
This man maintained he had found it on the road, but, not knowing how to read, had carried it home and turned it over to his master.
The news spread to the suburbs. Master Hauchecorne was informed. Immediately he set himself the task of going about relating his story, capping it with this climax. He was triumphant.
"What hurt me the mostest," he said, "was not the thing itself, don't you see, but the lies. Nothing hurts so as when lies 's told about you."
All day long he talked of his adventure. He told it on the roads to the people passing, at the tavern to people who were drinking, and then to the people coming out of church the next Sunday. He even stopped strangers to tell them the tale. He felt relieved by this time, yet something troubled him without his knowing just what it was. People had a mocking manner as they listened.
They did not appear convinced. He almost felt their tattle behind his back.
Tuesday of the next week, he went to the Goderville market, solely impelled by the need of recounting his affair.