She was still angry and indignant, and replied;
“Yes, master, I see it.”
“Well then, take it off, confound you! Do as I bid you.”
“I will,” she replied, “I will bid twelve pence.” (*)
(*) There is a pun in the French on the two meanings of the
verb hausser,—“to raise” and to “augment” or “run up.”
“Oh, indeed, dame,” said he, “is that your reply? Take off that pot, in God’s name!”
“Well!” she said. “I will put it at seven sous. Is that high enough?”
“Ha, ha!” he said. “By St. John that shall not pass without three blows with a good stick.”
He picked up a thick stick, and laid it with all his might across her back, saying as he did so,
“The lot is knocked down to you.”