United States or Sri Lanka ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
When at the end of an hour the major came out again it appeared to the captain as if he had only just gone in. Laguitte was so grimly mute that Burle did not venture to question him. For a moment they sought each other, groping about in the dark; then they resumed their walk through the somber streets, where the water rolled as in the bed of a torrent.
He would refrain from informing the colonel, and he would even make a present of the two thousand francs and replace the forged receipts by genuine ones, on condition that the major bound himself to renew the meat contract. It was a settled thing. "Ah," continued Laguitte, "calculate what profits the brute must make out of the meat to part with such a sum as two thousand francs."
When they got him outside they succeeded in quieting him a little by repeating that Laguitte was quite in the wrong. They would lay the affair before the colonel, having witnessed it, and the colonel would give his decision.
Charles still had the same gentle, girlish, frightened face, and Mme Burle retained her stern, rigid demeanor, looking even harsher than ever. As Laguitte shrank into the corner of a doorway to leave the whole street to them, she abruptly stopped in front of him and stretched out her hand.
A few, however, shook their heads. Laguitte had never been a marvel of intellect, that was true; for the last twenty years, indeed, he had been held up as an example of stupidity, but there had been a time when he was known as the best fencer of the regiment, and although he had begun as a drummer he had won his epaulets as the commander of a battalion by the sanguine bravery of a man who is quite unconscious of danger.
A sergeant reviewed the situation in one sentence: "Petticoat Burle is done for; he's a buried man!" It was nearly ten o'clock when Major Laguitte furiously flung the door of the cafe open. For a moment those inside could see the deluged square transformed into a dark sea of liquid mud, bubbling under the terrible downpour.
Suddenly, however, Laguitte, who kept his eye on the square, gave a start. "Hallo, there's Burle!" he exclaimed. "Yes, it is his time," explained Phrosine. "The captain passes every afternoon on his way from the office." In spite of his lameness the major had risen to his feet, pushing aside the chairs as he called out: "Burle! I say come along and have a glass."
It was Major Laguitte, a brave old soldier who had served under Colonel Burle during Mme Burle's palmy days. He had started in life as a drummer boy and, thanks to his courage rather than his intellect, had attained to the command of a battalion, when a painful infirmity the contraction of the muscles of one of his thighs, due to a wound obliged him to accept the post of major.
"Come here," he said, "I want some cheese too." She brought the plate, and Laguitte, sticking the knife in the Gruyere, stared at her, grinning the while because he discovered that she had one nostril broader than the other. Rose gravely allowed herself to be looked at, waiting till the gentleman had done laughing. She removed the cloth and disappeared.
Laguitte laughed; Rose's unparalleled ugliness amused him immensely. He whispered in the captain's ear, "She is ripping! There never was such a nose and such a mouth! You ought to send her to the colonel's someday as a curiosity. It would amuse him to see her." More and more struck by this phenomenal ugliness, the major felt a paternal desire to examine the girl more closely.
Word Of The Day