"Ninety francs ten sous; but what"s that to you, my lad? Are you a-going to come "my lord," and pay it for her?"
"Yes," said Rodolph, throwing five louis on the ogress"s bar, "and what"s your price for the clothes she wears?"
The old hag, amazed, looked at the louis one after the other, with an air of much doubt and mistrust.
"What! do you think I have given you bad money? Send and get change for one of them; but make haste about it. I say, again, how much for the garments the poor girl is wearing?"
The ogress, divided between her desire to make a good harvest, her surprise to see a workman with so much money, the fear of being cheated, and the hopes of still greater gain, was silent for an instant, and then replied, "Oh, them things is well worth a hundred francs."
"What! those rags? Come, now, you shall keep the change from yesterday, and I"ll give you another louis, and no more. If I give you all I have, I shall cheat the poor, who ought to get some alms out of me."
"Well, then, my fine fellow, I"ll keep my things, and Goualeuse sha"n"t go out. I have a right to sell my things for what I choose."
"May Lucifer one day fry you as you deserve! Here"s your money; go and look for Goualeuse."
The ogress pocketed the gold, thinking that the workman had committed a robbery, or received a legacy, and then said, with a nasty leer, "Well, indeed! Why not go up-stairs, and find Goualeuse yourself; she"ll be very glad to see you, for, on my life, she was much smitten with you yesterday?"
"Do you go and fetch her, and tell her I will take her into the country; that"s all you need say; not a word about my having paid you her debt."
"Why not?"
"What"s that to you?"
"Oh, nothing; it"s no matter to me; I would rather that she still believed herself in my clutch--"
"Will you hold your tongue, and do as I bid you?"
"Oh, what a cross creetur you are! I pity anybody who is under you.
Well, I"m going, I"m going;" and the ogress went up-stairs.
After a few minutes she came down again.
"Goualeuse would not believe me, and really turned quite crimson when she knew you were here; and when I told her that I would give her leave to pa.s.s the day in the country, I thought she would have gone crazy,--for the first time in her life she was inclined to throw her arms about my neck."
"That was her delight at leaving you."
Fleur-de-Marie entered at this moment, dressed as she was the over-night, with her gown of brown stuff, her little orange shawl tied behind her, and her handkerchief of red checks over her head, leaving only two thick bands of light hair visible. She blushed when she saw Rodolph, and looked down with a confused air.
"Would you like to pa.s.s the day in the country with me, my la.s.s?" asked Rodolph.
"Very much, indeed, M. Rodolph," said Goualeuse, "since madame gives me leave."
"Yes, yes, you may go, my little duck, because you"re such a good gal.
Come and kiss me afore you go."
And the old beldam offered her bloated lips to Fleur-de-Marie. The poor girl, overcoming her disgust, bent her forehead to the ogress, but Rodolph, giving a sudden push with his elbow, shoved the hag back on her seat, took Fleur-de-Marie"s arm, and left the _tapis-franc_, amidst the loud maledictions of Mother Ponisse.
"Mind, M. Rodolph," said Goualeuse; "the ogress will, perhaps, throw something at you,--she is very spiteful."
"Oh, don"t heed her, my girl. But what"s the matter with you? You seem embarra.s.sed, sad. Are you sorry for having come out with me?"
"Oh, dear, no; but--but--you give me your arm!"
"Well, and what of that?"
"You are a workman, and some one may tell your master that they met you with me, and harm may come of it; masters do not like their workmen to be unsteady." And Goualeuse gently removed her arm from that of Rodolph, adding, "Go on by yourself; I will follow you to the barrier; when we are once in the fields I can walk with you."
"Do not be uneasy," said Rodolph, touched by the poor girl"s consideration, and taking her arm again; "my master does not live in this quarter, and we shall find a coach on the Quai aux Fleurs."
"As you please, M. Rodolph; I only said so that you might not get into trouble."
"I am sure of that, and thank you very much. But tell me, is it all the same to you what part of the country we go into?"
"Yes, quite so, M. Rodolph, so that it be the country. It is so fine and it is so nice to breathe the open air! Do you know that I have not been farther than the flower-market for these six weeks? And now, if the ogress allows me to leave the Cite, she must have great confidence in me."
"And when you came here, was it to buy flowers?"
"Oh, no, I had no money; I only came to look at them, and breathe their beautiful smell. During the half-hour which the ogress allowed me to pa.s.s on the quay on market-days, I was so happy that I forgot everything else."
"And on returning to the ogress, and those filthy streets?"
"Oh, why, then I returned more sad than when I set out; but I wiped my eyes, that I might not be beaten for crying. Yet, at the market, what made me envious--oh, so envious!--was to see neat, clean little workwomen, who were going away so gaily with a beautiful pot of flowers in their hands."
"I am sure that if you had had but a few flowers in your own window, they would have kept you company."
"What you say is quite true, M. Rodolph. Only imagine, one day, on her birthday, the ogress, knowing my taste, gave me a little rose-tree. If you only knew how happy it made me,--I was never tired of looking at it,--my own rose-tree! I counted its leaves, its flowers; but the air of the Cite is bad, and it began to wither in two days. Then--but you"ll laugh at me, M. Rodolph."
"No, no; go on."
"Well, then, I asked the ogress to let me go out, and take my rose-tree for a walk, as I would have taken a child out. Well, then, I carried it to the quay, thinking that to be with other flowers in the fresh and balmy air would do it good. I bathed its poor fading leaves in the clear waters of the fountain, and then to dry it I placed it for a full quarter of an hour in the sun. Dear little rose-tree! it never saw the sun in the Cite any more than I did, for in our street it never descends lower than the roof. At last I went back again, and I a.s.sure you, M.
Rodolph, that, thanks to these walks, my rose-tree lived at least ten days longer than it would have done, had I not taken such pains with it."
"No doubt of it. But when it died, what a loss it must have been to you!"
"I cried heartily, for it grieved me very, very much; and you see, M.
Rodolph,--for you know one loves flowers, although one hasn"t any of one"s own,--you see, I felt grateful to it, that dear rose-tree, for blooming so kindly for me, although I was so--"
Goualeuse bent her head, and blushed deeply.
"Unhappy child! With this feeling of your own position, you must often--"
"Have desired to end it, you mean, sir?" said Goualeuse, interrupting her companion. "Yes, yes, more than once. A month ago I looked over the parapet at the Seine; but then, when I looked at the flowers, and the sun, then I said, "The river will be always there; I am but sixteen and a half,--who knows?""
"When you said "who knows," you had hope?"
"Yes."
"And what did you hope?"