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Updated: May 15, 2025
Suddenly, he stood up in the middle of the room. "Listen to the old one, he's drunk!" said Tonsard, "and when he is, he is twice as full of deviltry; he has his own and that of the wine " "Spanish wine, and that trebles it!" cried Fourchon, laughing like a satyr. "My sons, don't butt your head straight at the thing, you're too weak; go at it sideways.
Ha, the villains! there's no deceiving them; if they suspect you, you've got to undo the bundle. Dogs! all three are not worth a farthing! Yes, kill 'em, and it won't ruin France, I tell you." "Little Vatel is not so bad," said Madame Tonsard. "He!" said Laroche, "he does his business, like the others; when there's a joke going he'll joke with you, but you are none the better with him for that.
Tonsard blamed his wife for her father's short-comings, and ill-treated her, with the customary revenge of the common people, whose minds take in only an effect and rarely look back to causes. Finding her fetters heavy, the woman lightened them. She used Tonsard's vices to get the better of him. Loving comfort and good eating herself, she encouraged his idleness and gluttony.
"They can't stop the gleaning," said the old woman. "I don't know that," remarked Madame Tonsard. "Groison said that the mayor was going to publish a notice that no one should glean without a certificate of pauperism; and who's to give that certificate? Himself, of course. He won't give many, I tell you!
"So matters are getting warm, are they?" said Tonsard to little Brunet. "What can you expect? you pilfer the man too much, and he's going to protect himself," replied the officer. "It will be a bad business for you in the end; government will interfere." "Then we, poor unfortunates, must give up the ghost!" said Mam Tonsard, offering him a glass of brandy on a saucer.
"A fine piece of work," said the old man, examining the mischievous machine. "It is very well to pick up the sous now, papa," said Mam Tonsard, "but you know we are to have our share in the cake of Les Aigues." "Oh, what chatterers women are!" cried Tonsard. "If I am hanged it won't be for a shot from my gun, but for the gabble of your tongue."
Though quickly and lightly done, the old man might, perhaps, have felt the theft, if Vermichel had not happened to appear at that moment. "Tonsard, do you know where you father is?" called that functionary from the foot of the steps. Vermichel's shout, the theft of the money, and the emptying of old Fourchon's glass, were simultaneous.
During this scene Catherine Tonsard stood sentinel at the door to warn the drinkers to keep silent if any one passed. In spite of their half-drunken legs they sprang rather than walked out of the tavern, and their bellicose temper started them at a good pace on the road to Conches, which led for over a mile along the park wall of Les Aigues.
"You sold your last clothes to drink boiled wine at the Cafe de la Paix, papa," said his daughter, "though Vermichel tried to prevent it." "Vermichel! the man I treated! Vermichel is incapable of betraying my friendship. It must have been that lump of old lard on two legs that he is not ashamed to call his wife!" "He or she," replied Tonsard, "or Bonnebault."
As Tonsard asked the question, Vaudoyer left the house to see Rigou. Langlume, who had already gone out, turned on the door-step, and answered: "Crowd of do-nothings! are you so rich that you think you are your own masters?" Though said with a laugh, the meaning contained in those words was understood by all present, as horses understand the cut of a whip.
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