"Ah, so you're Jérôme?" cried Paul. "Good! I see you had the Comte d'Andeville's letter. Have our servants come?"
"They arrived this morning, sir, the three of them; and they have been helping my wife and me to tidy up the house and make it ready to receive the master and the mistress."
He took off his cap again to Élisabeth, who said:
"Then you remember me, Jérôme? It is so long since I was here!"
"Mlle. Élisabeth was four years old then. It was a real sorrow for my wife and me when we heard that you would not come back to the house . . . nor Monsieur le Comte either, because of his poor dead wife. So Monsieur le Comte does not mean to pay us a little visit this year?"
"No, Jérôme, I don't think so. Though it is so many years ago, my father is still very unhappy."
Jérôme took the bags and placed them in a fly which he had ordered at Corvigny. The heavy luggage was to follow in the farm-cart.
It was a fine day and Paul told them to lower the hood. Then he and his wife took their seats.
"It's not a very long drive," said the keeper. "Under ten miles. But it's up-hill all the way."
"Is the house more or less fit to live in?" asked Paul.