“I don’t know anything about the history of France,” blurted Soudry; “and before I try to learn it, it is more important to me to know why old Rigou has gone into the Cafe de la Paix with Socquard.”
“Oh!” returned the abbe, “wherever he goes and wherever he stays, you may be quite certain it is for no charitable purpose.”
“That man gives me goose-flesh whenever I see him,” said Madame Vermut.
“He is so much to be feared,” remarked the doctor, “that if he had a spite against me I should have no peace till he was dead and buried; he would get out of his coffin to do you an ill-turn.”
“If any one can force the Shopman to come to the fair, and manage to catch him in a trap, it’ll be Rigou,” said Soudry to his wife, in a low tone.
“Especially,” she replied, in a loud one, “if Gaubertin and you, my love, help him.”
“There! didn’t I tell you so?” cried Guerbet, poking the justice of the peace. “I knew he would find some pretty girl at Socquard’s,—there he is, putting her into his carriage.”
“You are quite wrong, gentlemen,” said Madame Soudry; “Monsieur Rigou is thinking of nothing but the great affair; and if I’m not mistaken, that girl is only Tonsard’s daughter.”
“He is like the chemist who lays in a stock of vipers,” said old Guerbet.
“One would think you were intimate with Monsieur Vermut to hear you talk,” said the doctor, pointing to the little apothecary, who was then crossing the square.