Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 17, 2025
The old witch has got the priests at him," thought Ramin, inwardly groaning at his own folly in allowing himself to be forestalled. "You cannot see Monsieur to-night," sharply said Marguerite, as he attempted to pass. "Alas! is my excellent friend so very ill?" asked Ramin, in a mournful tone.
"Will you pay him?" interrogated Bonelle, sharply. "Most willingly," replied Ramin, with an eagerness that made the old man smile. "As to the annuity, since the subject annoys you, we will talk of it some other time." "After you have heard the doctor's report," sneered Bonelle. The mercer gave him a stealthy glance, which the old man's keen look immediately detected.
Now, then, down upon him!" "Ramin is right," cried the boys; "let us attack the enemy." "Attention!" commanded Ramin. The boys drew themselves up in military order right opposite the bleating sheep. "Draw swords!" In the twinkling of an eye they had drawn their little rapiers, which looked more like penknives than swords, and which the Austrians had left to their little prisoners of war.
Marguerite, in her wrath, told the story as a grievance to every one; people listened, shook their heads, and pronounced Monsieur Ramin to be a deuced clever fellow. A month elapsed. As Ramin was coming down one morning from the attics, where he had been giving notice to a poor widow who had failed in paying her rent, he heard a light step on the stairs.
Some charitable souls moved no doubt by Monsieur Bonelle's misfortune endeavored to console and pump him; but all they could get from him was the bitter exclamation, "To think I should have been duped by him!" For Ramin had the art, though then a mere youth, to pass himself off on his master as an innocent provincial lad.
"Come on, let us do it!" cried the boys. "What song shall we sing?" "Prince Eugene," cried young Ramin; and immediately with his childish treble struck up "Prince Eugene, the noble knight." And all the lads joined in with a sort of desperate enthusiasm, and the song of the noble knight rose from their young lips like a peal of rejoicing.
Her master, on looking up, perceived the red face of Monsieur Ramin peeping over the old woman's shoulder, and irefully cried out: "How dare you bring that fellow here? And you, sir, how dare you come?" "My good old friend, there are feelings," said Ramin, spreading his fingers over the left pocket of his waistcoat "there are feelings," he repeated, "that cannot be subdued.
Presently a sprightly gentleman, in buoyant health and spirits, wearing the form of Monsieur Bonelle, appeared. Ramin stood aghast. "Well, Ramin," gaily said the old man, "how are you getting on? Have you been tormenting the poor widow up stairs? Why, man, we must live and let live!" "Monsieur Bonelle," said the mercer, in a hollow tone; "may I ask where are your rheumatics?"
"You may rely on it, you would preserve your health better if you had not the trouble of these vexatious lodgers. Have you thought about the life annuity?" said Ramin as carelessly as he could, considering how near the matter was to his hopes and wishes. "Why, I have scruples," returned Bonelle, coughing. "I do not wish to take you in. My longevity would be the ruin of you."
Old Marguerite several times refused to admit him, declaring her master was asleep: there was something mysterious and forbidding in her manner that seemed to Monsieur Ramin very ominous. At length a sudden thought occurred to him: the housekeeper wishing to become her master's heir had heard his scheme and opposed it.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking