United States or Germany ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Mother Madou, who would have floored a recalcitrant or too-familiar wagoner and gone fearlessly to the assault of the Tuileries on the 10th of October, who jeered her best customers and was capable of speaking up to the king in the name of her associate market-women, Angelique Madou received Gigonnet with abject respect. Without strength in his presence, she shuddered under his rasping glance.
Madame Madou bore down, like an insurrectionary wave from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, upon the shop-door of the hapless Birotteau, which she opened with excessive violence, for her walk had increased her fury. "Heap of vermin! I want my money; I will have my money!
"So-so," said Madame Madou, respectfully, offering her only armchair to the usurer, with a show of attention she had never bestowed on her "dear defunct."
But they are to be weighed by the hundred pounds, so that there may be no hollow ones. Without that, no bargain." "Ah, the dog! he knows what he's about," said Madame Madou; "can't make a fool of him! It is those rascals in the Rue des Lombards who have put him up to that! Those big wolves are all in a pack to eat up the innocent lambs."
I was not long to remain in ignorance of her vocation nor her name; for scarcely did she pass a group without stopping to dispense a wonderful cordial that she carried; and then I heard the familiar title of "La Mère Madou," uttered in every form of panegyric. She was a short, stoutly-built figure, somewhat past the middle of life, but without any impairment of activity in her movements.
Well, I'll get you a receipt in full, anyhow; you keep the money, my poor old man! La Madou may get in a fury, and she does scold; but she has got something here " she cried, thumping the most voluminous mounds of flesh ever yet seen in the markets. "No," said Birotteau, "the law is plain. I wish to pay you in full."
"Of neither," said I; "I am speaking of those who have left nothing but a name behind them, the 'Garde du Corps' of the king." "Voila!" cried Madou, clapping her hands in astonishment at my impertinence; "there's an aristocrat for you! Look at him, mes braves! It's not every day we have the grand seigneurs condescending to come among us!
"Alas!" he said, going on with his joke, "my three eighths will only be worth a million in six years. How shall I ever pay that two hundred thousand francs?" said Cesar, with a gesture of alarm. "Well, we shall be reduced to pay them with that," he added, pulling from his pocket a nut, which he had taken from Madame Madou and carefully preserved.
She had no disputes with the agriculturists who consigned her the fruit, for they corresponded in ready money, the only possible method of communication, to receive which Mere Madou paid them a visit in the fine season of the year. Birotteau found this shrewish trader among sacks of filberts, nuts, and chestnuts. "Good-morning, my dear lady," said Birotteau with a jaunty air.
"That's all I have," said the seller, in a voice like a hoarse flute. "My dear monsieur, you are not one of the sluggards who waste their time on girls and perfumes. God bless you, you've got something to do! Excuse me a bit. You'll be a jolly customer, dear to the heart of the woman I love best in the world." "Who is that?" "Hey! the dear Madame Madou." "What's the price of your nuts?"
Word Of The Day