CHAPTER IV

DETAILS CONCERNING THE CHEESE-DAIRIES OF PONTARLIER.


Now, in order to convey an idea of what passed at that table,
we cannot do better than to transcribe here a passage from one
of Mademoiselle Baptistine's letters to Madame Boischevron,
wherein the conversation between the convict and the Bishop
is described with ingenious minuteness.


". . . This man paid no attention to any one. He ate with the
voracity of a starving man. However, after supper he said:

"`Monsieur le Cure of the good God, all this is far too good for me;
but I must say that the carters who would not allow me to eat with
them keep a better table than you do.'

"Between ourselves, the remark rather shocked me. My brother replied:--

"`They are more fatigued than I.'

"`No,' returned the man, `they have more money. You are poor;
I see that plainly. You cannot be even a curate. Are you really
a cure? Ah, if the good God were but just, you certainly ought
to be a cure!'