peace at once! He was in no hurry, however; he did not love her then,
since he could be satisfied to live at variance with her. And
gradually a feeling of gloom took possession of her, her rebellious
thoughts returned, and she resolved anew to yield in nothing.

At eleven o'clock, before setting her breakfast on the fire, Martine
came to her for a moment, the eternal stocking in her hand which she
was always knitting even while walking, when she was not occupied in
the affairs of the house.

"Do you know that he is still shut up there like a wolf in his hole,
at his villainous cookery?"

Clotilde shrugged her shoulders, without lifting her eyes from her
embroidery.

"And then, mademoiselle, if you only knew what they say! Mme. Felicite
was right yesterday when she said that it was really enough to make
one blush. They threw it in my face that he had killed old Boutin,
that poor old man, you know, who had the falling sickness and who died
on the road. To believe those women of the faubourg, every one into
whom he injects his remedy gets the true cholera from it, without
counting that they accuse him of having taken the devil into
partnership."

A short silence followed. Then, as the young girl became more gloomy
than before, the servant resumed, moving her fingers still more
rapidly:

"As for me, I know nothing about the matter, but what he is making