This speech put us all at our ease. Clairette, who saw that the little hunchback was acquainted with everything, smilingly accepted a double louis which he slipped into her hand, and asked nothing better than to act as our confederate. Everything being arranged, Master Graograicus took up his list, requested me to write down the girl’s replies, so that we might not make any mistakes, and began his examination, to which Clairette replied as well as she could. “Annette-Suzanne-Estelle Guignard, thirty-six years of age?” “She lies; she’s forty-five at least. She’s an old maid, who’d like to be married on any terms; but no one will have her; in the first place, because she’s lame; and then because she chews tobacco.” “Enough.--Antoine-Nicolas La Giraudière, forty years of age, clerk in the mayor’s office?” “He’s a fat fellow, as round as a ball; they say that he’s not likely to set the North River on fire; perhaps he wants to consult you about giving him a little wit.” “Impossible! People always think that they have enough.” “Oh! wait a minute: his wife has already had four girls, and she’s furious because she hasn’t got any boys.” “That’s it; I understand. He wants me to tell him a way to make boys.--Next. Romuald-César-Hercule de La Souche, Marquis de Vieux-Buissons, seventy-five years old, former Grand Huntsman, former light horseman, former page, former--Parbleu! he needn’t have taken the trouble to put ‘former’ before all his titles! I presume that he doesn’t ride or hunt any more. What can he want of me?” “He has just bought a small estate in the suburbs; he is having a dispute with his vassals; he claims that they’re rabbits----” “Rabbits! his vassals?” “No--wait a minute; I made a mistake, it’s stags--_cerfs_.” “Ah! very good, I understand what you mean--serfs.” “And then, whenever there’s a marriage among ’em, he insists on having the bride come and pass an hour alone with him, and bless me! the peasants don’t take to that! The result is he’s always quarrelling with ’em.” “That’s all right; I know enough about him.--Angélique Prudhomme, Madame Jolicœur, thirty-two years of age, laundress to all the notables of the town. The deuce! what an honor!” “Ah! she’s a hussy, I tell you, is Madame Jolicœur! She keeps the town talking about her. She launders for the officers in the garrison and goes to balls with ’em.” “Is she pretty?”