"I detest them as machines, not as men!" retorted the Radical.
CHAPTER XIX.
HUMAN NATURE.
"Va …
A monsieur le Curé
Lui dire que sa paroisse
Est tout bouleversee."
—POPULAR BALLAD.
Curé L'Archeveque, black skull-cap on head, was in the best of humour, playing with his little dog in the ample reception-room of the parsonage, when a laborer came and brought an account of several late doings in the village.
When Messiré heard what had been said at Zotique's, his rotund black stole writhed as if founts of lava boiled in him; his face swelled to the likeness of a fiery planet; indignation choked his speech for four minutes by the face of the tall clock in his sitting-room; and then the lava rose to the surface in jets:
"Gang of accurseds!"
"Atheists!"
"Freemasons!"