"
"No!" his companion cried in triumph. "But I intend to know
them; and to know a good deal about them. Guard the window
there," he continued fussily. "Where is my clerk? Is M. de
Laval coming?"
Two or three cried obsequiously that he had crossed the hill; and
would arrive immediately.
Hearing this, and thinking it more becoming not to enter into an
altercation, I kept my seat and the scornful silence I had
hitherto maintained. The two Mayors had brought with them a
posse of busybodies--huissiers, constables, tip-staves, and the
like; and these all gaped upon us as if they saw before them the
most notable traitors of the age. The women of the house wept in
a corner, and the strollers shrugged their shoulders and strove
to appear at their ease. But the only person who felt the
indifference which they assumed was La Font; who, obnoxious to
none of the annoyances which I foresaw, could hardly restrain his
mirth at the DENOUEMENT which he anticipated.
Meanwhile the Mayor, foreseeing a very different issue, stood
blowing out his cheeks and fixing us with his little eyes with an
expression of dignity that would have pleased me vastly if I had
been free to enjoy it.
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