"'Bless my soul! Mignonne's a fine dragon, ain't she? Why, she's younger'n you! and she rolls her eye the minute anyone looks at her, as if it gave her cramp in the stomach.' "Mignonne was evidently the pretty blonde in the centre, for she answered at once with a saucy little smile, and a glance at me out of the corner of her eye; for during this conversation I was still standing near the gingerbread stall, and still munching my four-sous' purchase. "'If I am young, Mère Giroux, that doesn't prevent my keeping an eye on these girls; for I've been in Paris, and I'm not to be caught.' "'You, Mignonne! nonsense! You'll be caught sooner than the others, I'll bet! You're too sugary; you'll melt!' "'Anyway,' cried the other two, 'do you suppose we're afraid of men? Why, there's nothing frightful about 'em!' "'If they'd grow, I'd plant a field of them.' "Whereupon they roared with laughter; but pretty Mignonne took no part in it; she pulled her companions away, crying: "'Au revoir, Mère Giroux! Au revoir!' "'What! ain't you going to buy as much as a stick of barley sugar, to suck on the way?' "'By and by, when we come back; to cool us off.' "When the girls had gone, the huckster complained more loudly than ever about the nuisance of the fêtes in the neighboring villages. For my part, I was determined to have another look at the blonde whom they called Mignonne, but I desired, first of all, to obtain some information concerning her. I began by buying a huge square of gingerbread, larded with almonds, while loudly praising what I had already eaten. Mère Giroux, flattered to the melting point, gazed at me with an expression that seemed to say: "'Ah! if all the young men who come to Sceaux only liked gingerbread as much as this gentleman does!' "'Mère Giroux,' I said, carefully bestowing my new purchase in my pocket, 'you seem to know those young women who went by just now?' "'_Pardi!_ I know everybody in the neighborhood, I do!' "'Are they farmers' daughters?' "'Yes, the two dark ones are, the Dargenettes. They're good enough girls, for all their talk about men; if anybody should go too far with 'em, they'd do good work with their feet and hands and nails, I'll warrant. They like to fool, but they're virtuous! And then, their father wouldn't stand any fooling. Old Dargenette's a gardener, and he ain't very pleasant every day. He fondled his wife with his rake when she didn't walk straight; and I guess he'd do the same to his daughters, if they should go astray. Country folk, monsieur, talk a little free sometimes, but you mustn't judge 'em by that.' "'And that other girl with them, whom you called Mignonne? She carries herself as if she had lived in Paris.'