"What! and is
it not true?" she answered, her eyes glittering. "Will he not
to-morrow go to Le Mesnil and squeeze the poor? Ay, and will not
Lescauts the corn-dealer, and Philippon the silk-merchant, come
to him with bribes, and go free? And de Fonvelle and de Curtin--
they with a DE, forsooth!--plead their nobility, and grease his
hands, and go free? Ay, and--"
"Silence, woman!" the man said again, looking apprehensively at
me, and from me to my attendants, who were grinning broadly.
"You do not know that this gentleman is not--"
"A tax-gatherer?" I said, smiling. "No. But how long has your
friend upstairs been here?"
"Two days, Monsieur," she answered, wiping the perspiration from
her brow, and speaking more quietly. "He is talking of sending
on a deputy to Le Mesnil; but Heaven send he may recover, and go
from here himself!"
"Well," I answered, "at any rate, we have had enough of this
noise. My servant shall go up and tell him that there is a
gentleman here who cannot put up with a disturbance.
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