"Like me. I had the baptism of a dog in a ditch, and they called me "Fellow," or "You, sir," or "Albino." It is really surprising, my wench, how much we resemble each other!" said the Chourineur.
"That"s true,--in our misery," said Fleur-de-Marie, who addressed herself to the Chourineur almost always, feeling, in spite of herself, a sort of shame at the presence of Rodolph, hardly venturing to raise her eyes to him, although in appearance he belonged to that cla.s.s with whom she ordinarily lived.
"And when you had fetched the worms for the Chouette, what did you do?"
inquired the Chourineur.
"Why, she made me beg until night; then, in the evening, she went to sell fried fish on the Pont Neuf. Oh, dear! at that time it was a long while to wait for my morsel of bread; and if I dared to ask the Chouette for something to eat, she beat me and said, "Get ten sous, and then you shall have your supper." Then I, being very hungry, and as she hurt me very much, cried with a very full heart and sore body. The Chouette tied my little basket of barley-sugar round my neck, and stationed me on the Pont Neuf, where, in winter, I was frozen to death. Yet sometimes, in spite of myself, I slept as I stood,--but not long; for the Chouette kicked me until I awoke. I remained on the bridge till eleven o"clock, my stock of barley-sugar hanging round my neck, and often crying heartily. The pa.s.sengers, touched by my tears, sometimes gave me a sou; and then I gained ten and sometimes fifteen sous, which I gave to the Chouette, who searched me all over, and even looked in my mouth, to see if I had kept back anything."
"Well, fifteen sous was a good haul for a little bird like you."
"It was. And then the one-eyed woman seeing that--"
"With her one eye?" said the Chourineur, laughing.
"Of course, because she had but one. Well, then, she finding that when I cried I got most money, always beat me severely before she put me on the bridge."
"Brutal, but cunning."
"Well, at last I got hardened to blows; and as the Chouette got in a pa.s.sion when I did not cry, why I, to be revenged upon her, the more she thumped me the more I laughed, although the tears came into my eyes with the pain."
"But, poor Goualeuse, did not the sticks of barley-sugar make you long for them?"
"Ah, yes, Chourineur; but I never tasted them. It was my ambition, and my ambition ruined me. One day, returning from Montfaucon, some little boys beat me and stole my basket. I came back, well knowing what was in store for me; and I had a shower of thumps and no bread. In the evening, before going to the bridge, the Chouette, savage because I had not brought in anything the evening before, instead of beating me as usual to make me cry, made me bleed by pulling my hair from the sides of the temples, where it is most tender."
"_Tonnerre!_ that was coming it too strong," said the bandit, striking his fist heavily on the table, and frowning sternly. "To beat a child is no such great thing, but to ill-use one so--Heaven and earth!"
Rodolph had listened attentively to the recital of Fleur-de-Marie, and now looked at the Chourineur with astonishment: the display of such feeling quite surprised him.
"What ails you, Chourineur?" he inquired.
"What ails me? Ails me? Why, have you no feeling? That devil"s dam of a Chouette who so brutally used this girl! Are you as hard as your own fists?"
"Go on, my girl," said Rodolph to Fleur-de-Marie, without appearing to notice the Chourineur"s appeal.
"I have told you how the Chouette ill-used me to make me cry. I was then sent on to the bridge with my barley-sugar. The one-eyed was at her usual spot, and from time to time shook her doubled fist at me. However, as I had not broken my fast since the night before, and as I was very hungry, at the risk of putting the Chouette in a pa.s.sion, I took a piece of barley-sugar, and began to eat it."
"Well done, girl!"
"I ate another piece--"
"Bravo! go it, my hearties!"
"I found it so good, not from daintiness, but real hunger. But then a woman, who sold oranges, cried out to the one-eyed woman, "Look ye there, Chouette; Pegriotte is eating the barley-sugar!""
"Oh, thunder and lightning!" said the Chourineur; "that would enrage her,--make her in a pa.s.sion! Poor little mouse, what a fright you were in when the Chouette saw you!--eh?"
"How did you get out of that affair, poor Goualeuse?" asked Rodolph, with as much interest as the Chourineur.
"Why, it was a serious matter to me,--but that was afterwards; for the Chouette, although boiling over with rage at seeing me devour the barley-sugar, could not leave her stove, for the fish was frying."
"Ha! ha! ha! True, true,--that was a difficult position for her," said the Chourineur, laughing heartily.
"At a distance, the Chouette threatened me with her long iron fork; but when her fish was cooked, she came towards me. I had only collected three sous, and I had eaten six sous" worth. She did not say a word, but took me by the hand and dragged me away with her. At this moment, I do not know how it was that I did not die on the spot with fright. I remember it as well as if it was this very moment,--it was very near to New Year"s day, and there were a great many shops on the Pont Neuf, all filled with toys, and I had been looking at them all the evening with the greatest delight,--beautiful dolls, little furnished houses,--you know how very amusing such things are for a child."
"You had never had any playthings, had you, Goualeuse?" asked the Chourineur.
"I? _Mon Dieu!_ who was there to give me any playthings?" said the girl, in a sad tone. "Well, the evening pa.s.sed. Although it was in the depth of winter, I only had on a little cotton gown, no stockings, no shift, and with wooden shoes on my feet: that was not enough to stifle me with heat, was it? Well, when the old woman took my hand, I burst out into a perspiration from head to foot. What frightened me most was, that, instead of swearing and storming as usual, she only kept on grumbling between her teeth. She never let go my hand, but made me walk so fast--so very fast--that I was obliged to run to keep up with her, and in running I had lost one of my wooden shoes; and as I did not dare to say so, I followed her with one foot naked on the bare stones. When we reached home it was covered with blood."
"A one-eyed old devil"s kin!" said the Chourineur, again thumping the table in his anger. "It makes my heart quite cold to think of the poor little thing trotting along beside that cursed old brute, with her poor little foot all b.l.o.o.d.y!"
"We lived in a garret in the Rue de la Montellerie; beside the entrance to our alley there was a dram-shop, and there the Chouette went in, still dragging me by the hand. She then had a half pint of brandy at the bar."
"The deuce! Why, I could not drink that without being quite fuddled!"
"It was her usual quant.i.ty; perhaps that was the reason why she beat me of an evening. Well, at last we got up into our c.o.c.k-loft; the Chouette double-locked the door; I threw myself on my knees, and asked her pardon for having eaten the barley-sugar. She did not answer me, but I heard her mumbling to herself, as she walked about the room, "What shall I do this evening to this little thief, who has eaten all that barley-sugar?
Ah, I see!" And she looked at me maliciously with her one green eye. I was still on my knees, when she suddenly went to a shelf and took down a pair of pincers."
"Pincers!" exclaimed the Chourineur.
"Yes, pincers."
"What for?"
"To strike you?" inquired Rodolph.
"To pinch you?" said the Chourineur.
"No, no," answered the poor girl, trembling at the very recollection.
"To pull out your hair?"
"No; to take out one of my teeth."
The Chourineur uttered a blasphemous oath, accompanied with such furious imprecations that all the guests in the _tapis-franc_ looked at him with astonishment.
"Why, what is the matter with you?" asked Rodolph.
"The matter! the matter! I"ll skin her alive, that infernal old hag, if I can catch her! Where is she? Tell me, where is she? Let me find her, and I"ll throttle the old--"
"And did she really take out your tooth, my poor child,--that wretched monster in woman"s shape?" demanded Rodolph, whilst the Chourineur was venting his rage in a volley of the most violent reproaches.
"Yes, sir; but not at the first pull. How I suffered! She held me with my head between her knees, where she held it as if in a vice. Then, half with her pincers, half with her fingers, she pulled out my tooth, and then said, "Now I will pull out one every day, Pegriotte; and when you have not a tooth left I will throw you into the river, and the fish shall eat you.""
"The old devil! To break and pull out a poor child"s teeth in that way!"
exclaimed the Chourineur, with redoubled fury.
"And how did you escape her then?" inquired Rodolph of the Goualeuse.