She was grumbling when she reappeared in the door, after putting down her pails.
“I don’t sell milk,” she replied.
“We are very thirsty,” he said, “and madame is very tired. Can we not get something to drink?”
The peasant woman gave them an uneasy and cunning glance and then she made up her mind.
“As you are here, I will give you some,” she said, going into the house, and almost immediately the child came out and brought two chairs, which she placed under an apple tree, and then the mother, in turn brought out two bowls of foaming milk, which she gave to the visitors. She did not return to the house, however, but remained standing near them, as if to watch them and to find out for what purpose they had come there.
“You have come from Fécamp?” she said.
“Yes,” Monsieur d’Apreval replied, “we are staying at Fécamp for the summer.”
And then, after a short silence he continued:
“Have you any fowls you could sell us every week?”
The woman hesitated for a moment and then replied: