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The girl did not hesitate. She intercepted the couple, and took her mother's arm in hers. The desperation of her act appeared to her while she was walking Mama Lalotte home; still, if nothing but force will restrain a parent, you must use force. Michel Pensonneau stood squarely in his moccasins, turning redder and redder at the laugh of his cronies before the warehouse.
Except his capacity for marrying, there was really no harm in the old fellow, as Monsieur Crooks had said. The humid blockhouse and walls of the fort high above the bay began to glisten in emerging sunlight, and Jenieve determined not to be hard on Mama Lalotte that day. If Michel came to say good-by, she would shake his hand herself.
"You never have been young," complained Mama Lalotte. "You don't know how a young person feels. "I let you go to the dances," argued Jenieve. "You have as good a time as any woman on the island. But old Michel Pensonneau," she added sternly, "is not settling down to smoke his pipe for the remainder of his life on this doorstep." "Monsieur Pensonneau is not old."
Lalotte entered the market-place of Altdorf, at the moment when her uncle, having disposed of his chamois-skins to advantage, was crossing from the carriers' stalls to a clothier's booth to purchase woollen cloths for winter garments.
Braves do not consort with white women who cannot be made into slaves," she answered, with spirit. "Lalotte, thou wert hard to win in those early days. But now a dozen good kisses with more flavor in them than Burgundy wine, and I will prove to you I am the same old Antoine. And then but thy supper smell is good to a hungry man. And a dish of shallots. It takes a man back to old Barbizon."
Jenieve had no suspicion while the little figure preened and burnished itself, making up for the lack of a mirror by curves of the neck to look itself well over. Mama Lalotte thought a great deal about what she wore. She was pleased, and her flaxen curls danced. She kissed Jenieve on both cheeks, as if there had been no quarrel, though unpleasant things never lingered in her memory.
Philip has run off to Altdorf fair, and taken Henric with him!" "My dear Lalotte," said her aunt, "you must put on your hood and sabots, and run after them. Perhaps, as you are light-footed, you can overtake them, and bring Henric back. I am sure, some mischief will befall him." Lalotte hastily threw her gray serge cloak about her, and drew the hood over her head.
It behooved him now to begin looking around; to prepare a fireside for himself. Michel was a good clerk to his employers. Cumbrous though his body might be, when he was in the woods he never shirked any hardship to secure a specially fine bale of furs. Mama Lalotte, propelled against her will, sat down, trembling, in the house.
"But what will mother say?" asked Henric. "We won't let her know anything about it," said Philip. "But Lalotte won't let us go; for Lalotte is very cross, and wants to master me." "A fig for Lalotte!" cried the rude Philip; "do you think I care for her?" "I won't care for Lalotte when I grow a great big boy like you, cousin Philip; but she makes me mind her now," said Henric.
Lalotte, knowing that all depended on his remaining quiet, as soon as the soldiers had placed him with his face averted from his father, sprang forward, and whispered in Henric's ear, "Stand firm, dear boy, without moving, for five minutes, and you will be forgiven for your fault of this morning."
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