"Come now, Père Piaulard, let alone of my coat! it's old, and you'll tear it."
"I won't let you go. Pay me what you owe me; with the old account, it's twenty-nine francs. I need the money; pay me, or come before the magistrate; he'll have you arrested as a good-for-nothing, a tramp, a vagabond, as you are—and something worse, perhaps."
"I say! no rough words, or I'll lose my temper, too!"
"Mon Dieu!" said Madame Gerbancourt; "are those horrid men coming any nearer?"
"One of them is very drunk!" said Armantine. "How disgusting! Why, the men ought to be arrested! If we hadn't Monsieur Rochebrune with us, I should have run away long ago."
"Oh! mon Dieu! I believe they're going to fight; and they're coming this way!"
"Oh! look, monsieur!"
I did not turn my head; I pretended not to hear, pulled my hat over my eyes, and sat perfectly still.
Suddenly all three of the ladies jumped to their feet with a cry of alarm. Armantine seized my arm, so that I was compelled to rise. Ballangier, trying to escape from his persecutor, had almost fallen over our chairs, to one of which he clung to keep from falling. The wretch was drunk, but not enough so to prevent his recognizing familiar faces; and the fatality which had brought him to that exact spot decreed that he should be at my side when I rose to follow the ladies.
The miserable sot uttered a cry of joy on recognizing me, and, seizing my overcoat with both hands just as his creditor descended upon him, he cried: