‘What! not the worst?’
Michel shook his head.
‘He has developed an unnatural craving for eggs; he got into M. Acoyer’s poultry-yard and stole all his. M. Acoyer came to complain to me. How do you suppose he lost his foot?’
‘You told me yourself—in somebody’s grounds where he had forgotten to read the notice about trespassing.’
‘You are joking, sir—but I really believe he can read.’
‘Oh! Michel, Pritchard is accused of enough sins without having that vice laid to his charge! But about his foot?’
‘I think he caught it in some wire getting out of a poultry-yard.’
‘But you know it happened at night, and the hens are shut up at night. How could he get into the hen-house?’
‘He doesn’t need to get into the hen-house after eggs; he can charm the hens. Pritchard is what one may call a charmer.’
‘Michel, you astonish me more and more!’