“You are right,” said I, “but if I may venture to say so, I should think your little man might sometimes have cause for uneasiness.”
“And why, I should like to know? My worst enemy would admit that I am a woman of my word, if he keeps his part of the bargain, but if he doesn’t, just let him look out for himself, that’s all I have to say. If he does his duty, I will do mine!”
“His whole duty?”
“You don’t suppose he would admit that it is too much for him?”
Martine sat back on her heels, her bright eyes sparkling with laughter, then jumped up and gave me a great push.
“You are wasting my whole day for me, there never was such an old gossip since the world was made. Get out now, take Glodie with you, she is forever under my feet, with her fingers in everything that goes on, (there, she has been in the bakeshop again, I can see dough on her nose). Get along with you, do, before I sweep you both out!”
So out we had to go, glad enough to be together, and on the way at last to Rion’s, but there were some fishermen by the riverside, and we had to stop to look at them, give them some advice and watch the line, and see the float disappear under the green water with a jerk. Glodie noticed the worm wriggling on the hook. “Poor thing,” she said, “he is going to be eaten, and that makes him unhappy.”
“Well, darling, it is rather nasty to be eaten, but then think how nice for the fish that swallows him, and says, ‘that’s good!’”
“How would you like it, Grandad, if any one swallowed you?”
“I should say, ‘What luck for the man that gets such a toothsome morsel!’ It is just the way you look at it, ducky, everything is good if you only see it in the right light; all is for the best to a true son of Burgundy.”