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Updated: May 22, 2025
I fear that I cannot look for too much from my companions, Catenac and Hortebise; I have up to now kept them back. Croisenois would never betray me, and as for Beaumarchef, La Candele, Toto Chupin, and a few other poor devils, they would be a fine haul for the police. They couldn't split, simply because they know nothing."
She half turned away her head, and began to complain of the hardness of the terms and of the meanness of the mistresses, who, instead of allowing their cooks to do the marketing, did it themselves, and so cheated their servants out of their commissions. Beaumarchef nodded, just as he had done half an hour before to a lady who had complained bitterly of the misconduct of her servants.
He was, however, much mistaken; for though outwardly Toto was the same, yet his ideas had taken an entirely new direction; and when Beaumarchef urged him to look sharp, the request was received with a great deal of sullenness. "I ain't lost no time," said he, "and have fished up a thing or two fresh; but before saying a word " He stopped, and seemed a little confused. "Well, go on."
Beaumarchef could not endure an insult to his mustache, and Chupin was about to receive the kick he had so richly earned, when Daddy Tantaine suddenly made his appearance, looking exactly as he did when he visited Paul in his garret. "Tut, tut; never quarrel with the door open." Beaumarchef thanked Providence for sending this sudden reinforcement to his aid, and began in a tone of indignation,
Beaumarchef was about to ask Tantaine to remain in the office while he went off to put on his best clothes, but the old man stopped this request by saying, "As M. Mascarin does not like to be disturbed, I will just go in without knocking. When the other gentlemen arrive, show them in; for look you here, my good friend, the pear is so ripe that if it is not plucked, it will fall to the ground."
He promised that he would be careful, and imagining that he had received all his directions, rose to leave; but the old man still detained him. "Here," said he, "suppose you tell me a little about Caroline Schimmel. You told Beaumarchef that she said I had made her scream, and that when she caught me, I should have a bad time of it, eh?"
Harmless people did not usually ask questions of itinerant chestnut venders, and to open his mouth might be to injure Mascarin, Beaumarchef, or the guileless Tantaine. This last thought determined the lad. "Keep your ten sous, my pippin," said the boy; "I'll tell you what you want to know all gratis and for nothing, because I've taken a real fancy to the cut of your mug.
Then Mascarin will disappear, our faithful Beaumarchef will be in the United States, and we can afford to laugh at the police." "It seems like a success," said the doctor, "but push on for mercy's sake; all these delays and fluctuations will make me seriously ill." The two worthy associates held this conversation in a doorway, anxious to be sure that Flavia had kept her promise.
"And why shouldn't I? There was no need to work then; but now it is another pair of shoes, for I have spent nearly all I had saved." Beaumarchef laid down his pen, and eyed her curiously for a second or two; then he said, "You've been making a fool of yourself somehow, I expect."
M. Mascarin's partner was a tall and athletic man, evidently enjoying the best of health, and wearing a large moustache elaborately waxed and pointed. His whole appearance betokened the old soldier. He had, so he asserted, served in the cavalry, and it was there that he had acquired the soubriquet by which he was known Beaumarchef, his original name being David.
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