“No!” he replied sharply.
“Is that tall man, who wears such wonderful lace ruffles, her husband?” pursued Péron, unmercifully.
“A thousand times, no!” cried Père Antoine.
“Then,” exclaimed Péron in triumph, “how can she have been the Marquise de Nançay? I heard them call him the marquis.”
Père Antoine wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, and rose and opened the casement.
“It is warm,” he said, then he turned to the child with the manner which his pupil knew how to interpret. “We have wasted much valuable time,” he remarked gravely. “I wish you to learn from the Psalter to-day. You should not ask so many questions; there may always be several people of the same name. It is more important for you to read well than to know so much of unprofitable matters. I notice that when the letters are colored in blue, you more easily mistake them than those in red; this is not as it should be, and shows either a want of application or inattention to your lessons.”
For the next hour and a half Péron found Père Antoine a harder taskmaster than he had ever been before, and many times, in the interval, the child sighed as he thought of the green fields and flowers between Paris and St. Germain-en-Laye.
CHAPTER VIII
PÉRON’S FIRST VICTORY
WHEN the boy was twelve years old, a great change came into his life. The Prince de Condé, coming into the shop one day, saw him, noticed his strength and beauty, and offered to receive him into his household to be trained to the profession of arms. This opportunity was joyfully embraced by Jacques des Horloges, who had long been in despair of placing the child as he desired. Père Antoine had trained him well in reading, and he was a fair scribe, but he had had no one to teach him to wield a weapon or ride a horse, and the clockmaker desired to see him a soldier rather than a priest.
Condé’s offer was therefore the subject of many debates in the room behind the shop; Jacques Michel being eager to send him into the household of a prince of the blood, and Père Antoine and Madame Michel half inclined to put obstacles in the way, mainly because they could not endure the thought of parting with the boy. But the opportunity was too brilliant to be lost, and in the end the clockmaker prevailed.