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Gaubertin may die, or get rich enough to retire from business; at any rate, you will have sufficient time to find him a competitor. The cake is too rich not to be shared. Look for another Gaubertin to oppose the original." "Sibilet," said the old soldier, delighted with this variety of solutions. "I'll give you three thousand francs if you'll settle the matter as you propose.
"Have you, my dear fellow?" said Rigou, who a few days earlier had suggested this means of exasperating the peasantry to Sibilet, telling him to advise the general to try it. "Then we've got him; he's lost! But it isn't enough to hold him with one string; we must wind it round and round him like a roll of tobacco.
Matters went worse still after the vintage; for the gathering of the refuse grape was not allowed until Sibilet had examined the vines with extreme care.
It may be that the steward's present house, with some adjoining land, will be the price paid for Sibilet's spying. Nothing is ever said among us that is not immediately known at Ville-aux-Fayes. Sibilet is a relative of your enemy Gaubertin. What you have just said about the attorney-general and the others will probably be reported before you have reached the Prefecture.
Many false natures mask their hollowness in this way; be rough with them in return and the effect produced is that of a balloon collapsed by a prick. Such was Sibilet.
"No, madame, unfortunately not," said the abbe. "Poor Niseron, that old fellow with the white head, who combines the functions of bell-ringer, beadle, grave-digger, sexton, and clerk, in defiance of his republican opinions, I mean the grandfather of the little Genevieve whom you placed with Madame Michaud " "La Pechina," said Sibilet, interrupting the abbe.
"Those people never betray one another," said Sibilet, "if the crime done is for their benefit and premeditated. There is no denying that this diabolical business has been planned, carefully planned and contrived." "Yes, but a thousand francs means a couple of acres of land." "We can try," said Sibilet; "fifteen hundred francs might buy you a traitor, especially if you promise secrecy."
"I don't like your Sibilet," said Blondet, when he had seen the steward leave the house. "That man is playing false." "Up to this time he has done nothing I could complain of," said the general. Blondet went off to write letters.
Charles looked at Pere Fourchon with naive admiration, not suspecting the eager interest the general's enemies took in slipping one more spy into the chateau. "The general ought to feel happy now," continued Fourchon; "the peasants are all quiet. What does he say? Is he satisfied with Sibilet?" "It is only Monsieur Michaud who finds fault with Sibilet. They say he'll get him sent away."
Under these circumstances the letter which Madame Soudry hastily dispatched brought Sibilet to Soulanges through a region of castles in the air. His father-in-law, Sarcus, whom the Soudrys advised to take steps in the interest of his daughter, had gone in the morning to see the general and to propose Adolphe for the vacant post.
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