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Old women, whom you would really think at their last gasp, become at the harvest and vintage times as active and healthy as girls. You can witness that phenomenon very soon," said Sibilet, addressing Blondet, "for the harvest, which was put back by the rains in July will begin next week, when they cut the rye.
"Monsieur le comte, I don't pretend to excuse him," replied Sibilet. "I want to see Les Aigues prosperous, if it were only to prove Gaubertin's dishonest; but we ought not to abuse him openly for he is one of the most dangerous scoundrels to be found in all Burgundy, and he is now in a position to injure you." "In what way?" asked the general, sobering down.
Faith, if Madame would only listen to me, she wouldn't give that dowry to the Tonsard girl, who is more worthless than her grandmother." The old woman raised her gray eyes and darted a venomous look at Michaud. When the count learned who the guilty person was, he forbade his wife to give the money to Catherine Tonsard. "Monsieur le comte is perfectly right," said Sibilet.
"Then, what's to be done?" repeated the general, on whom Sibilet's arguments were beginning to produce the effect of a violent poison. Just then the remembrance of the blows he had given Gaubertin with his cane crossed his mind, and made him wish he had bestowed them on himself. His flushed face was enough to show Sibilet the irritation that he felt.
"You are always for maintaining the right, my dear Michaud, and 'summum jus, summum injuria. If you are not more tolerant, you will get into trouble, so Sibilet here tells me. I wish you could have heard Pere Fourchon just now; the wine he had been drinking made him speak out." "He frightened me," said the countess. "He said nothing I did not know long ago," replied the general.
"Ask Sibilet; the answer is in his line, he likes to make you angry," said Michaud, with a pained look. "But if you will have an answer well, that's a nickname these brigands have given you, general." "What does it mean?" "It means, general well, it refers to your father." "Ha! the curs!" cried the count, turning livid.
"I have already," wrote Sibilet, "sued these men in the courts at Ville-aux-Fayes, for they have taken legal residence there, on account of this lease, with my old employer, Maitre Corbinet. I fear we shall lose the suit." "It is a question of income, my dear," said the general, showing the letter to his wife. "Will you go down to Les Aigues a little earlier this year than last?"
The man was always grave, even when he allowed himself to jest. Annette had in fact opened the door secretly to Sibilet, Fourchon, and Catherine Tonsard, who all came at different hours between eleven and two o'clock.
"And she is none the better for it," said Sibilet, "for the others ill-treat her on account of her religion." "Well, that poor old man of seventy gleans, honestly, about a bushel and a half a day," continued the priest; "but his natural uprightness prevents him from selling his gleanings as others do, he keeps them for his own consumption.
Not only were the interests of mayor and miller diametrically opposed, but Langlume had long hatched swindling projects with Rigou, who lent him money to carry on his business, or to acquire property. The miller had bought the right to the hay of certain fields for his horses, and Sibilet could not sell it except to him.
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