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Then, leaving the little man thoroughly bewildered, Rigou got into the carriole beside Marie Tonsard. "Well, you little viper," he said, taking her by the arm when he had fastened the reins to a hook in front of the leathern apron which closed the carriole and the horse had started on a trot, "do you think you can keep Bonnebault by giving way to such violence?
Why did Nicolas, that vulgar laborer, pursue this being who was worthy of a poet, while the eyes of the country-folk pitied her as a sickly deformity? Why did Rigou, the old man, feel the passion of a young one for this girl? Which of the two men was young, and which was old? Was the young peasant as blase as the old usurer?
"Well, my wolves," he said, as he returned, rubbing his hands, "the gendarmerie of Soulanges were seen this morning at daybreak, marching towards Conches; no doubt they mean to arrest the peasants for depredations; ha, ha! things are getting warm, warm! By this time," he added, looking at his watch, "those fellows may have been arrested." "Probably," said Rigou.
By thus mingling mildness and severity, hopes and rebuffs, the clever egoist kept his three slaves faithful and close at his heels, like dogs. Taking the upper-road, so-called, to avoid the Close of the Cross, Rigou reached the square of Soulanges about eight o'clock.
In 1791, just about the time that the Abbe Niseron offered his house as an asylum to Rigou and his brother Jean, the little girl played one of her mischievous but innocent tricks.
The words caused Rigou to give the little jump with which crafty natures recognize the craft of others. "The Shopman has another vice," he said; "he loves his wife; we might get hold of him that way." "We ought to find out how far she really influences him," said Madame Soudry. "There's the rub!" said Lupin.
The fellow had been hired by Socquard at the last annual fair; for in this valley, as throughout Burgundy, servants are hired in the market-place by the year, exactly as one buys horses. "What's your name?" said Rigou. "Michel, at your service," replied the waiter. "Doesn't old Fourchon come here sometimes?"
Rigou knew nothing of the love affair between her and Jean-Louis Tonsard, which proves that he had let himself be fooled by the girl, the only one of his many servants whose ambition had taught her to flatter the lynx as the only way to blind him. This uncrowned Louis XV. did not keep himself wholly to his pretty Annette.
"Besides, you know I am playing above board; I have perfect confidence in Rigou, and he shall be the purchaser." "That will satisfy me," said Rigou. "I will make only one condition," added Gaubertin. "I must have the pavilion of the Rendezvous, with all its appurtenances, and fifty acres of the surrounding land. I shall make it my country-house, and it shall be near my woods.
Vaudoyer related the talk which had just taken place at the tavern, and asked Rigou's opinion as to the legality of the rules which the general thought of enforcing. "He has the law with him," said Rigou, curtly. "We have a hard landlord; the Abbe Brossette is a malignant priest; he advises all such measures because you don't go to mass, you miserable unbelievers. I go; there's a God, I tell you.
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