“And still, dear master, go not to-day; I never asked you before; I do this time. I fear some evil this morning!”
The Bourgeois looked at her inquiringly. He knew the good dame too well not to be sure she had some weighty reason for her request.
“What particularly moves you to this singular request, Dame Rochelle?” asked he.
“A potent reason, master, but it would not weigh a grain with you as with me. There is this morning a wild spirit afloat,—people's minds have been excited by a sermon from one of the college fathers. The friends of the Intendant are gathered in force, they say, to clear the market of the Honnêtes Gens. A disturbance is impending. That, master, is one reason. My other is a presentiment that some harm will befall you if you go to the market in the midst of such excitement.”
“Thanks, good dame,” replied the Bourgeois calmly, “both for your information and your presentiment; but they only furnish an additional reason why I should go to try to prevent any disturbance among my fellow-citizens.”
“Still, master, you see not what I see, and hear not what I hear, and would not believe it did I tell you! I beseech you, go not to-day!” exclaimed she imploringly, clasping her hands in the eagerness of her appeal.
“Good dame,” replied he, “I deeply respect your solicitude, but I could not, without losing all respect for myself as a gentleman, stay away out of any consideration of impending danger. I should esteem it my duty all the more to go, if there be danger, which I cannot believe.”
“Oh, that Pierre were here to accompany you! But at least take some servants with you, master,” implored the dame, persisting in her request.
“Good dame, I cannot consult fear when I have duty to perform; besides, I am in no danger. I have enemies enough, I know; but he would be a bold man who would assail the Bourgeois Philibert in the open market-place of Quebec.”
“Yet there may be such a bold man, master,” replied she. “There are many such men who would consider they did the Intendant and themselves good service by compassing your destruction!”