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Updated: June 12, 2025
The dead wood is gathered up, but that is all " "That rascal Gaubertin has lost no time!" cried the general. "He is a bold man," said Sibilet. "He really is, as he calls himself, the steward of the best half of the department, instead of being merely the steward of Les Aigues.
"My dear Monsieur Michaud," replied Sibilet, in a snappish tone, "I have told Monsieur le comte that I would rather lose twelve hundred francs a year than my life. Think of it seriously; I have warned you often enough." "Life!" exclaimed the countess; "you can't mean that anybody's life is in danger?" "Don't let us argue about state affairs here," said the general, laughing.
"If you attempt to work your own woods," continued Sibilet, turning the knife in the wound, "you will find yourself at the mercy of workmen who will force you to pay rich men's prices instead of market-prices. In short, they'll put you, as they did that poor Mariotte, in a position where you must sell at a loss.
Gaubertin promised them his assistance, without explaining who were his co-operators, for he did not wish them to know about his relations with Sibilet. Nothing can equal the prudence of a man of Gaubertin's stamp, unless it be that of an ex-gendarme or an unfrocked priest.
"You won't succeed, Monsieur le comte; Gaubertin's arms are long; you will get yourself into difficulties from which you cannot escape." "Let us think of the present," interrupted the general. "About that suit?" "That, Monsieur le comte, I can manage to win for you," replied Sibilet, with a knowing glance.
Instead of calming the general, Sibilet, as the reader has already seen, constantly excited him and drove him to harsh measures, all the while trying to daunt him by drawing his attention to countless annoyances, petty vexations, and ever-recurring and unconquerable difficulties. The enmity which separated the two functionaries was satisfactory to the general.
"Bravo, Sibilet!" said the general, shaking his steward's hand; "how are you going to do it?" "You will win it on a writ of error," replied Sibilet. "In my opinion the Gravelots have the right of it. But it is not enough to be in the right, they must also be in order as to legal forms, and that they have neglected. The Gravelots ought to have summoned you to have the woods better watched.
I'm bringing up Mouche on another tack; he loves me, the little scamp," giving his grandson a poke. "It seems to me you are making him a little thief, like all the rest," said Sibilet; "he never lies down at night without some sin on his conscience." "Ha! Monsieur Sibilet, his conscience is as clean as yours any day! Poor child! what can he steal?
"I certainly shall have the estate properly guarded. So it is to be war, is it? Very good, then we shall make war. That doesn't frighten me," said Montcornet, rubbing his hands. "A war of francs," said Sibilet; "and you may find that more difficult than the other kind; men can be killed but you can't kill self-interest.
"Oh! the rascal wasn't drunk; he was playing a part; for whose benefit I leave you to guess. Perhaps you know?" returned Michaud, fixing an eye on Sibilet which caused the latter to turn red. "O rus!" cried Blondet, with another look at the abbe.
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