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Maitre Hauchecorne, seated at the other end of the table answered: "Here I am, here I am." And he followed the corporal. The mayor was waiting for him, seated in an armchair. He was the notary of the place, a tall, grave man of pompous speech. "Maitre Hauchecorne," said he, "this morning on the Beuzeville road, you were seen to pick up the pocketbook lost by Maitre Houlbreque, of Manneville."
He was the local notary, a stout, solemn-faced man, given to pompous speeches. "Master Hauchecorne," he said, "you were seen this morning, on the Beuzeville road, to pick up the wallet lost by Master Huelbrèque of Manneville." The rustic, dumfounded, stared at the mayor, already alarmed by this suspicion which had fallen upon him, although he failed to understand it.
The name of Beuzeval had suggested to him that of another place in the same district, Beuzeville, which carried also, bound to it by a hyphen, a second name, to wit Breaute, which he had often seen on maps, but without ever previously remarking that it was the same name as that borne by his friend M. de Breaute, whom the anonymous letter accused of having been Odette's lover.
As far as Beuzeville they were alone, and chattered like magpies, but at that station a couple got in.
Perhaps I had really blinded him! An hour's run brought us to Beuzeville, where we were dumped out, together with our luggage, in a little frame station. An official informed us that we must wait there three hours for the train for Les Ifs. Beyond that? He could not say. We might possibly reach Etretat next day. "How far is Les Ifs from here?" inquired my companion.
When the public crier had finished his tattoo he called forth in a jerky voice, pausing in the wrong places: "Be it known to the inhabitants of Goderville and in general to all persons present at the market that there has been lost this morning on the Beuzeville road, between nine and ten o'clock, a black leather pocketbook containing five hundred francs and business papers.
"The people of Goderville, and all those present at the market are informed that between nine and ten o'clock this morning on the Beuzeville road, a black leather wallet was lost, containing five hundred francs, and business papers. The finder is requested to carry it to the mayor's at once, or to Master Fortuné Huelbrèque of Manneville. A reward of twenty francs will be paid." Then he went away.
As far as Beuzeville they were alone, and chattered like magpies, but at that station a couple got in.
I could be of little use, since English was an unknown tongue at Beuzeville, and even Mr. Royce's French was sorely taxed, but we succeeded at last in securing a horse and light trap, together with a driver who claimed to know the road. All this had taken time, and the sun was setting when we finally drove away northward.
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