“The lady’s better ‘n you!”
“Thanks!” said the young peasant; “if madame gives fruit to everybody who comes to steal it, they won’t take the trouble to climb the wall!”
“Well! what would you have had me give the child?”
“It seems to me that he deserved a good licking instead of cherries!”
“He is said to be very naughty; but on the other hand everybody scolds him and treats him harshly.”
“Sometimes they beat him, and hard too!”
“Well, I propose to try another method of reforming him.”
“You are right,” said Agathe; “gentleness is better than violence; I have read that somewhere in La Fontaine’s fables.”
A few days later, Edmond having gone to Paris, the two friends knew that he would not come to see them; and so, immediately after dinner, Agathe proposed to Honorine that they should go for a long walk.
“I don’t want to go in the direction of the Tower,” said Honorine; “it would seem as if we were trying to meet the owner again; and as that gentleman has not thought fit to call to inquire whether my fright had any serious consequences, I should be sorry to have him think that we cared to see him again.”