In the kindness of his heart, in order to save them a reprimand, if
not something worse, Jean stepped up to them and said:

"You had better be going, sir. It is past retreat, and if the
lieutenant should see you--" Maurice did not permit him to conclude
his sentence:

"Stay where you are, Weiss," he said, and turning to the corporal,
curtly added: "This gentleman is my brother-in-law. He has a pass from
the colonel, who is acquainted with him."

What business had he to interfere with other people's affairs, that
peasant whose hands were still reeking of the manure-heap? _He_ was a
lawyer, had been admitted to the bar the preceding autumn, had
enlisted as a volunteer and been received into the 106th without the
formality of passing through the recruiting station, thanks to the
favor of the colonel; it was true that he had condescended to carry a
musket, but from the very start he had been conscious of a feeling of
aversion and rebellion toward that ignorant clown under whose command
he was.

"Very well," Jean tranquilly replied; "don't blame me if your friend
finds his way to the guardhouse."

Thereon he turned and went away, assured that Maurice had not been
lying, for the colonel, M. de Vineuil, with his commanding, high-bred
manner and thick white mustache bisecting his long yellow face, passed
by just then and saluted Weiss and the soldier with a smile. The
colonel pursued his way at a good round pace toward a farmhouse that
was visible off to the right among the plum trees, a few hundred feet