And presently from the top of a high hill we saw again the magnificent valley of the Seine and the winding river beneath us.
At our right a very small slate-covered building, with a bell tower as large as a sunshade, adjoined a pretty house with green Venetian blinds, and all covered with honeysuckle and roses.
"Here are some friends!" cried a big voice, and Matthew appeared on the threshold. He was a man about sixty, thin and with a goatee and long, white mustache.
My friend shook him by the hand and introduced me, and Matthew took us into a clean kitchen, which served also as a dining-room. He said:
"I have no elegant apartment, monsieur. I do not like to get too far away from the food. The saucepans, you see, keep me company." Then, turning to my friend:
"Why did you come on Thursday? You know quite well that this is the day I consult my Guardian Saint. I cannot go out this afternoon."
And running to the door, he uttered a terrific roar: "Melie!" which must have startled the sailors in the ships along the stream in the valley below.
Melie did not reply.
Then Matthew winked his eye knowingly.
"She is not pleased with me, you see, because yesterday I was in the nineties."
My friend began to laugh. "In the nineties, Matthew! How did you manage it?"
"I will tell you," said Matthew. "Last year I found only twenty rasieres (an old dry measure) of apricots. There are no more, but those are the only things to make cider of. So I made some, and yesterday I tapped the barrel. Talk of nectar! That was nectar. You shall tell me what you think of it. Polyte was here, and we sat down and drank a gla.s.s and another without being satisfied (one could go on drinking it until to-morrow), and at last, with gla.s.s after gla.s.s, I felt a chill at my stomach. I said to Polyte: "Supposing we drink a gla.s.s of cognac to warm ourselves?" He agreed. But this cognac, it sets you on fire, so that we had to go back to the cider. But by going from chills to heat and heat to chills, I saw that I was in the nineties. Polyte was not far from his limit."
The door opened and Melie appeared. At once, before bidding us good-day, she cried:
"Great hog, you have both of you reached your limit!"
"Don"t say that, Melie; don"t say that," said Matthew, getting angry. "I have never reached my limit."
They gave us a delicious luncheon outside beneath two lime trees, beside the little chapel and overlooking the vast landscape. And Matthew told us, with a mixture of humor and unexpected credulity, incredible stories of miracles.
We had drunk a good deal of delicious cider, sparkling and sweet, fresh and intoxicating, which he preferred to all other drinks, and were smoking our pipes astride our chairs when two women appeared.
They were old, dried up and bent. After greeting us they asked for Saint Blanc. Matthew winked at us as he replied:
"I will get him for you." And he disappeared in his wood shed. He remained there fully five minutes. Then he came back with an expression of consternation. He raised his hands.
"I don"t know where he is. I cannot find him. I am quite sure that I had him." Then making a speaking trumpet of his hands, he roared once more:
"Meli-e-a!"
"What"s the matter?" replied his wife from the end of the garden.
"Where"s Saint Blanc? I cannot find him in the wood shed."
Then Melie explained it this way:
"Was not that the one you took last week to stop up a hole in the rabbit hutch?"
Matthew gave a start.
"By thunder, that may be!" Then turning to the women, he said:
"Follow me."
They followed him. We did the same, almost choking with suppressed laughter.
Saint Blanc was indeed stuck into the earth like an ordinary stake, covered with mud and dirt, and forming a corner for the rabbit hutch.
As soon as they perceived him, the two women fell on their knees, crossed themselves and began to murmur an "Oremus." But Matthew darted toward them.
"Wait," he said, "you are in the mud; I will get you a bundle of straw."
He went to fetch the straw and made them a priedieu. Then, looking at his muddy saint and doubtless afraid of bringing discredit on his business, he added:
"I will clean him off a little for you."
He took a pail of water and a brush and began to scrub the wooden image vigorously, while the two old women kept on praying.
When he had finished he said:
"Now he is all right." And he took us back to the house to drink another gla.s.s.
As he was carrying the gla.s.s to his lips he stopped and said in a rather confused manner:
"All the same, when I put Saint Blanc out with the rabbits I thought he would not make any more money. For two years no one had asked for him. But the saints, you see, they are never out of date."
ORIGINAL SHORT STORIES, Vol. 11.
GUY DE MAUPa.s.sANT ORIGINAL SHORT STORIES Translated by ALBERT M. C. McMASTER, B.A.
A. E. HENDERSON, B.A.
MME. QUESADA and Others
VOLUME XI.
THE UMBRELLA
Mme. Oreille was a very economical woman; she knew the value of a centime, and possessed a whole storehouse of strict principles with regard to the multiplication of money, so that her cook found the greatest difficulty in making what the servants call their market-penny, and her husband was hardly allowed any pocket money at all. They were, however, very comfortably off, and had no children; but it really pained Mme. Oreille to see any money spent; it was like tearing at her heartstrings when she had to take any of those nice crown-pieces out of her pocket; and whenever she had to spend anything, no matter how necessary it might be, she slept badly the next night.