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Updated: May 22, 2025
"I wish she would have done with throwing away our money in diamonds at that rate," said Randolphe, gloomily. "The people will not love her if she does. We all know it is what we pay for this cursed salt, and our poll-tax, and all our grinding taxes, that go to pay for such freaks as these." "Well, love," said his wife, "she is young, and may learn. Don't let us be grudging to her as a stranger."
The message was heard by those within, for the bearer shouted it aloud from door to door of all the peasantry of the Count's estate. Randolphe and another were wanted to-night, to flog the ponds. "I will go myself, because I must," observed Randolphe: "but how to find another I don't know, so I shall just let that alone." "They won't forgive you for not taking a second," remarked his wife.
These nobles must all be rich, must all be pampered in luxury, though not one of them would work with his head or hands. If a nobleman had five sons, they must all be pampered alike; and the sons of five hundred peasants must be oppressed, to supply the means. Randolphe said he had little thought to see the day when he should hear soldiers say these things openly at his own door.
The Count did not see nor heed this. Randolphe thought his graver son did; for there was a sudden crackle of the newspaper, and the reader's face was crimson to the temples. "We have one friend there, I fancy," muttered the unhappy father, as he went out. "But for that, I think you and I had better drown ourselves in the ponds between this and home." "Charles!" gasped Marie in his ear.
Randolphe had decided upon his plan, and Marie had only to submit. The bailiff met them at the head of the avenue, and led them to the morning apartment of the Count, which he entered first, after being announced, leaving his companions in the hall. The door was presently opened, and he beckoned them in.
They would lose nothing by waiting, if they settled comfortably at last." "Please your lordship," said Randolphe, in a hoarse voice, "they have waited so very long already, and there is no prospect " He glanced at Marie to see how she bore this. She seemed to be just falling; and he drew her arm within his, to keep her up. "We will take care that there is a prospect," said Casimir.
They were not, however, let off so easily as they had now begun to hope. The young man asked some questions from the window, which put it into the Count's head to ask more, till Randolphe thought it prudent not to keep back his story, but to request the Count's consent to Marie's marriage, as if that had been his own part of his errand this morning.
The smoker here muttered something which made his comrade jog his elbow, and the host say, "Hush! Hush!" What he was muttering was, that if they wanted to get rid of a nuisance, the aristocrats were fewer than the frogs. Randolphe was evidently anxious to be gone after he had heard this speech. He would not say another word on his own grievances, or those of his neighbours.
Randolphe cut across into the wood where he had seen Charles half an hour before, while Marie went homewards with tottering steps, looking away from the ponds, from a feeling that her state of mind was too desperate for her to trust herself on the brink of deep waters. It was a comfort to Marie, on reaching home, to find that no soldiers were there.
"Randolphe is wretchedly poor, my lord, as you say; but there is no one of your people hereabouts who is less so." The youth's reply was, that in the question of arrangements for receiving the Dauphiness, he supposed the principal peasants belonging to the chateau would be spoken to; and he had mentioned Randolphe, understanding him to be one of them.
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