"Yes, yes, sir, only a peep!" cried the heroes of the trowel, with a
supplicating air.

"It is disagreeable to have to refuse you, gentlemen," answered Samuel;
"but I cannot open this door, until I am alone."

The masons, seeing the inflexibility of the old man, unwillingly
descended the steps; but the clerk had resolved to dispute the ground
inch by inch, and exclaimed: "I shall wait for my master. I do not leave
the house without him. He may want me--and whether I remain on these
steps or elsewhere, can be of little consequence to you my worthy
keeper."

The clerk was interrupted in his appeal by his master himself, who called
out from the further side of the courtyard, with an air of business: "M.
Piston! quick, M. Piston--come directly!"

"What the devil does he want with me?" cried the clerk, in a passion. "He
calls me just at the moment when I might have seen something."

"M. Piston," resumed the voice, approaching, "do you not hear?"

While Samuel let out the masons, the clerk saw, through a clump of trees,
his master running towards him bareheaded, and with an air of singular
haste and importance. The clerk was therefore obliged to leave the steps,
to answer the notary's summons, towards whom he went with a very bad
grace.

"Sir, sir," said M. Dumesnil, "I have been calling you this hour with all