He was
obsequious in manner and then disobeyed me, till one day I sent three
labourers back again to secure their own hay before they touched
ours. And when the harvest was gathered in the Abbe and I went round
the fields of the poor, and I pointed out the sheaves that might be
marked, and they were not the best.
I taught the girls to knit as they watched their cows, and promised
to buy some of their stockings, so that they might obtain sabots for
themselves with the price. They distrusted me at first, but before
long, they began to perceive that I was their friend, and I began to
experience a nice kind of happiness.
Alas! even this was too sweet to last, or perhaps, as the good Abbe
warned me, I was pleasing myself too much with success, and with
going my own way. The first murmur of the storm came thus: I had
been out all the afternoon with the Abbe, Armantine's bonne, and the
two children, looking at the vineyards, which always interested me
much because we have none like them in England. In one, where they
were already treading the grapes, the good woman begged that M. le
Marquis and Mademoiselle would for once tread the grapes to bring
good luck. They were frantic with joy; we took off their little
shoes and silk stockings, rolled them up in thick cloths, and let
them get into the trough and dance on the grapes with their little
white feet. That wine was always called 'the Vintage of le Marquis.
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