67. He accosted a farmer of Criquetot who would not let him finish, but giving him a dig in the pit of the stomach, cried out in his face, “G’long, you great rogue!” Then he turned on his heel.
Peasant simplicity.
68. Master Hauchecorne stood speechless, growing more and more disturbed. Why had he called him “great rogue”?
69. When seated at table at Jourdain’s tavern, he again began to explain the affair.
70. A Montivilliers horse-dealer called out to him:
71. “Go on, go on, you old trickster, I know you, and your piece of string!”
72. Hauchecorne stammered, “But—they—found it, the pocketbook!”
73. But the other retorted:
Denouement as to the resultant complication.
Final Complication.
74. “Be quiet, daddy! There’s one who finds it, and one who takes it back. No one sees it, no one recognizes it, no one is the wiser for it.”