"No, monsieur, oh, no! but Claude’s seen it."
"I ain’t seen it myself," said Claude, "but my oldest son Pierre, he’s seen it."
"It wasn’t me," said Pierre, "it was Joseph."
"I didn’t just exactly see it myself," said Joseph, "but I was along with Nicolas, and he said he thought he saw something."
"Oh! according to that," exclaimed Alfred, "the existence of the ghost is abundantly proved.—But let us return to little Isaure, who is neither a boy nor a girl, you say, which would give her more or less resemblance to an imp."
"Well, monsieur, to go back to her, we folks think that, if she ain’t afraid of the devil, it must be because she’s in league with him; and we say—but we don’t say it out loud—that the girl may be bewitched, or at any rate have some sly tricks we don’t know about, for snapping her fingers at evil spirits. For just see! take the family that took her in—they all died——"
"Yes, in the space of fifteen years."
"But does this girl live absolutely alone now?"
"Yes, messieurs, all alone and close by the White House, where folks like us wouldn’t like to live in a crowd!—It’s a very strange thing. And then, you see, this young Isaure, she ain’t like the other girls here in our mountains; and yet, as she was brought up here, there ain’t no reason why she should know more’n we do; for André and his wife wa’n’t no scholars, although they was well off."
"What do you say? that this girl is better educated than the people of these mountains?"