de la Chanterie, the Abbe de Veze, and Monsieur Alain. He wished to
know those of the other two; but they kept silence and ate their food
with the attention which recluses appear to give to every detail of a
meal.

"Does this fine fruit come also from your farm, madame?" asked
Godefroid.

"Yes, monsieur," she replied. "We have a little model farm, like the
government itself; we call it our country house; it is twelve miles
from here, on the road to Italy, near Villeneuve-Saint-Georges."

"It is a property that belongs to us all, and is to go to the
survivor," said the goodman Alain.

"Oh, it is not very considerable!" added Madame de la Chanterie,
rather hastily, as if she feared that Godefroid might think these
remarks a bait.

"There are thirty acres of tilled land," said one of the two
personages still unknown to Godefroid, "six of meadow, and an
enclosure containing four acres, in which our house, which adjoins
the farmhouse, stands."

"But such a property as that," said Godefroid, "must be worth a
hundred thousand francs."

"Oh, we don't get anything out of it but our provisions!" said the
same personage.