“Really?—Then I hope to see her soon, in order to be able to tell you that you are mistaken.”
“Tutu—turlututu.”
“Ah! here’s Père Ledrux,” said Honorine. “Well! did you carry off the black hen?”
“Yes, madame; and not a minute too soon! She was making the others as bad as herself. We shall have to watch now and see if the rooster hasn’t taken a spite against another one. Because, you see, when the rooster is down on a hen, he thrashes her till she dies—and that makes the others feel bad.”
“Really, Père Ledrux, I wouldn’t have believed that there were so many crimes committed in a hencoop.”
“Oh, yes! and everywhere else. Animals, you see, they ain’t any better or worse than us humans; they hate each other and they fight!”
Agathe had become pensive; Edmond meanwhile was wondering if Madame de Belleville could possibly be Thélénie.
The gardener, who loved to gossip, continued:
“This little place of ours is getting well filled up; and more swells, too—a baron! nothing less.”
“What do you say, Père Ledrux? there’s a baron in the village?”