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It was quite dark now, and Brother Archangias stumbled about amongst the chairs and nearly fell. He growled and muttered some angry words, in which the names of Jesus and Mary recurred. When La Teuse, who had gone for a lamp, returned into the church, she asked the priest: 'So I can put the brushes and pots away in the attic, then? 'Yes, he answered. 'I have finished.
But you would have been hungry, if you hadn't lunched at past two o'clock. Brother Archangias, tilting into his spoon the last few drops of soup remaining in his plate, said gravely: 'You should be regular in your meals, Monsieur le Cure. At this moment Desiree, who also had finished her soup, sedately and in silence, rose and followed La Teuse to the kitchen.
The replastering of the stonework soon tired him: so he contented himself with patching up the church walls all round to a height of some six feet from the ground. La Teuse mixed the plaster.
At first she answered nothing, but went round and round the table, limping frantically and stamping hard enough with her heels to split the flooring. 'You might have spoken to me of those people these three months past, said the priest at last. 'I should have known at any rate what sort of people I was going to call upon. La Teuse stopped short as if her legs had just broken.
But mother Brichet was begging at the vestry door. She stood there, tearful and wizen, before La Teuse, who was slipping some eggs into the pocket of her apron. Fortune didn't seem to feel the least sense of shame. He just winked and remarked: 'She is a knowing old card, my mother is. But then the Cure likes to see people at mass. Meanwhile, Rosalie had grown calm again.
The Brother hurled his cards upon the table. Whenever he cried out the windows shook sonorously. La Teuse at last seemed to be winning. She had secured three aces for some time already, and was casting longing eyes at the fourth. But Brother Archangias began to indulge in fresh outbursts of gaiety. He pushed up the table, at the risk of breaking the lamp.
Catherine was poking a long straw into the hole so roughly, that a swarm of frightened ants had rushed out upon the floor. Vincent declared, however, that she must get her straw right to the bottom if she wished to find the queen. 'Ah! you young imps! cried La Teuse, 'what are you after there? Can't you leave the poor little things alone? That is Mademoiselle Desiree's ants' nest.
People will begin to think that we gobble up everything and leave you nothing but the empty plates. Then both La Teuse and Desiree, brimful of health and strength, scolded him affectionately. His eyes seemed very large and bright, but empty, expressionless. He was still gently smiling.
'Come along, sir, said La Teuse, beginning to laugh, and raising her finger to her lips. They went into the next room, a country drawing-room, hung with faded wall-paper showing large grey flowers, and furnished with four armchairs and a sofa, covered with horse-hair. On the sofa now slept Desiree, stretched out at full length, with her head resting on her clenched hands.
For a moment one only heard the working of Brother Archangias's jaws, and the extraordinary rumbling of his gullet. Desiree, with her bare arms round the nest in her plate, smiled to the little ones, talking to them slowly and softly in a chirruping of her own which they seemed to understand. 'People say what they have done when they have nothing to hide, suddenly cried La Teuse.
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