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Updated: May 15, 2025
"Tonsard is ready for mischief," said Soudry, "I know that; and we'll work him up by Vaudoyer and Courtecuisse." "I'll answer for Courtecuisse," said Rigou. "And I hold Vaudoyer in the hollow of my hand." "Be cautious!" said Rigou; "before everything else be cautious." "Now, papa skull-cap, do you mean to tell me that there's any harm in speaking of things as they are?
"If you play me such a trick as that, Aglae," said the shrill voice of Marie Tonsard, "you sha'n't tell anything more except to the worms in your coffin. Don't meddle with my brother's business or with mine and Bonnebault's either."
Strange and noteworthy sight! that of those lifted heads, that group of persons gathered in the reeking hovel, while old Mother Tonsard stood sentinel at the door as security for the secret words of the drinkers. Of all those faces, that of Godain, Catherine's suitor, was perhaps the most alarming, though the least pronounced.
Fourchon grew very uneasy on seeing how his son-in-law's countenance softened as well as his words. "What do you want to rob me of now?" he asked, candidly. "I?" said Tonsard, "I take none but my legitimate dues; if I get anything from you it is in payment of your daughter's portion, which you promised me and never paid."
La Tonsard came out of her bedroom, attracted by the music of metal. "You are always rough to my poor father," she said to her husband, "and yet he has earned a deal of money this year; God grant he came by it honestly. Let me see that," she added, springing at the coin and snatching it from Fourchon's fingers. "Marie," said Tonsard, gravely, "above the board you'll find some bottled wine.
It was a beautiful waiting-room, floored with squares of white and red marble, warmed by a porcelain stove, and furnished with benches covered with red plush. It was there that one morning, just before harvest, old Mother Tonsard brought her granddaughter Catherine, who had to make, she said, a dreadful confession, dreadful for the honor of a poor but honest family.
"Faith, if I don't, somebody else will; but I, you see, I like the men who served the Emperor, and I can't make up my mind to shoot you like a partridge. Don't question me, for I'll tell you nothing; but you've got enemies, powerful enemies, cleverer than you, and they'll end by crushing you. I am to have a thousand crowns if I kill you, and then I can marry Marie Tonsard.
The bottle brought by Marie put an end to the loquacity of the old man, who was not without that trait, characteristic of those whose tongues are ready to tell out everything, and who shrink from no expression of their thought, no matter how atrocious it may be. "Then you don't want to tell where you filched that money?" said Tonsard.
In the first place, she managed to procure the good-will of the servants of the chateau, and Tonsard, in view of the results, made no complaint as to the means. He cared very little what his wife did, so long as she did all he wanted of her. That is the secret agreement of many a household.
As soon as his children were large enough he made them serviceable to his comfort, caring no more for their morality than for that of his wife. He had two sons and two daughters. Tonsard, who lived, as did his wife, from hand to mouth, might have come to an end of this easy life if he had not maintained a sort of martial law over his family, which compelled them to work for the preservation of it.
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