"
"If it were not for you, my handsome Max, what would become of me
now?" she said.
"Oh! to-morrow night at Mere Cognette's, after I have seen the
Parisians, I shall find a way to make the Hochons themselves get rid
of them."
"Ah! what a head you've got, my angel! You are a love of a man."
The place Saint-Jean is at the centre of a long street called at the
upper end the rue Grand Narette, and at the lower the rue Petite
Narette. The word "Narette" is used in Berry to express the same lay
of the land as the Genoese word "salita" indicates,--that is to say, a
steep street. The Grand Narette rises rapidly from the place
Saint-Jean to the port Vilatte. The house of old Monsieur Hochon is
exactly opposite that of Jean-Jacques Rouget. From the windows of the
room where Madame Hochon usually sat, it was easy to see what went on
at the Rouget household, and vice versa, when the curtains were drawn
back or the doors were left open. The Hochon house was like the Rouget
house, and the two were doubtless built by the same architect.
Monsieur Hochon, formerly tax-collector at Selles in Berry, born,
however, at Issoudun, had returned to his native place and married the
sister of the sub-delegate, the gay Lousteau, exchanging his office at
Selles for another of the same kind at Issoudun. Having retired before
1787, he escaped the dangers of the Revolution, to whose principles,
however, he firmly adhered, like all other "honest men" who howl with
the winners.
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