Monsieur Goulden was astounded.
"And you did not say that it was false. Then the story was true?"
And as I bowed my head without replying, he clasped his hands, saying:
"O youth! youth! it thinks of nothing. What folly! what folly!"
He walked around the room; then sat down to wipe his spectacles, and Aunt Grédel exclaimed:
"Yes, but they shall not have him yet! Their wickedness shall yet go for nothing. This very evening Joseph shall be in the mountains on the way to Switzerland."
Monsieur Goulden hearing this, looked grave; he bent his brows, and replied in a few moments:
"It is a misfortune, a great misfortune, for Joseph is really lame. They will yet find it out, for he cannot march two days without falling behind and becoming sick. But you are wrong, Mother Grédel, to speak as you do and give him bad advice."
"Bad advice!" she cried. "Then you are for having people massacred too!"