“Why, he’s the bear, as they call him round here; but for all that he ain’t so ugly as folks thought, the bear ain’t, for he bought Guillot’s house and gave him money too. Would you do that?”
“I don’t know what you mean.—Is the dog with you often? does he know you—as he came to your defence?”
“Oh! he don’t like me much; it wasn’t me that he wanted to help; he wanted to bite you!”
“Oho! do you think so? Then I must find out why the beast should show so much bad feeling against me. You say his master lives at the Tower? Where is that?”
“A fine big place over on the other side of the Marne, near Gournay. I say! there’s a great old park there—bigger’n yours.”
“Really! I must see that; and the owner of the dog is probably that boor whom no one about here will receive except Madame Dalmont.”
“Ah! she’s a kind lady, she is! she gives me cherries and sous; she wouldn’t beat me with her whip—I’ve still got the marks of it!”
“If you had been beaten more, you wouldn’t be such a little vagabond. But I’ll find out your name and your parents’ in spite of you.”
“You’ll be smarter’n other folks then! Good-day, madame!”
The little boy ran away with a mocking expression and Thélénie walked on, saying to herself: