He hangs up the finished harnesses, and, pointing to Drumont's portrait, in its laurel halo, he adds:
"If we only had him?
Oh, misfortune!"
I know not why I left him with a singular feeling of uneasiness in my soul.
At any rate, this story is going to give us something to talk about, something to divert us a little. _____
Sometimes, when Madame is out, and I cannot stand the ennui, I go to the iron fence by the roadside, where Mlle. Rose comes to meet me.
Always on the watch, nothing that goes on in our place escapes her. She sees all who come in and go out.
She is redder, fatter, flabbier than ever.
Her lips hang more than they did, and she is more and more haunted by obscene ideas.
Every time that we meet, her first look is at my person, and her first words, uttered in her thick voice, are:
"Remember my advice.
As soon as you notice anything, go straight to Mme. Gouin; straight."
It is a veritable obsession, a mania.
A little annoyed, I reply:
"But why do you expect me to notice anything?
I know nobody here."
"Ah!" she exclaims, "a misfortune comes so quickly!
A moment of forgetfulness,—it is very natural,—and there you are! Sometimes one does not know how it happens.
I have seen some who were as sure as you are, and then it happened all the same.
But with Mme. Gouin one can rest easy.
So expert a woman is a real blessing to a town.
Why, formerly, my dear little one, you saw nothing but children around here.
The town was poisoned with children.
An abomination!
They swarmed in the streets, like chickens in a hen-yard. They bawled on the door-steps, and made a terrible hullaballoo.
One saw nothing else.
Well, I don't know whether you have noticed it, but to-day there are no more to be seen, almost none at all."
With a more slimy smile, she continues:
"Not that the girls amuse themselves any less.
Oh! heavens, no!
On the contrary.
You never go out in the evening; but, if you were to take a walk at nine o'clock under the chestnut trees, you would see.
Everywhere couples on the benches, kissing and caressing.
It is a very pretty spectacle.
Oh! to me, you know, love is so pretty.
I perfectly understand that one cannot live without love.
Yes, but it is very annoying also to have a lot of children tagging at one's heels.
Well, they have none now; they have no more.
And it is to Mme. Gouin that they owe that.
Just a disagreeable moment to pass through; after all, it is not like having to swallow the sea.
In your place I would not hesitate.
A pretty girl like you, so distinguished, and who must have so good a figure,—a child would be a murder."
"Reassure yourself. I have no desire to have one."
"Yes, I know; nobody has any desire to have one.
Only ... But, tell me, has Monsieur never made advances to you?"
"Why, no."
"That is astonishing, for he has a great reputation for that.
Not even that morning in the garden?"
"I assure you."
Mam'zelle Rose shakes her head.