4, could not see the difference. They hung about the door all the day, thinking if he would but appear they might find courage to speak to him. The lucky Baptiste to have caught his attention! M. Goudron himself was not visible. He did not stand at the door and grin as he was in the habit of doing. The commotion had subdued him at least, and if there had been nothing else for which to thank _l’Anglais_, this was something, for these poor women, with their hearts full, felt that they could not have borne Père Goudron’s grin. And soon it became whispered in the crowd that it was Antoine who was going to accept Baptiste’s place. He had served already, being so much older, and most people were very glad to hear that he was going out of Latour. It would be so much the better for the other young men. Antoine had announced himself as ready to be any one’s _remplaçant_; things had been going badly with him all the winter, and the money tempted him. There had been great bargainings in the room where so much unusual talking had been going on and so many people crowded together; and at last, by the help of the Maire and Curé and old Père Goudron himself--who, now that nobody expected him to supply the funds, could not keep himself out of the negotiations--Antoine consented to take fifteen hundred francs as the price of his service. He was giving himself, as he declared, “dirt-cheap”; but as Mr Goulburn, though he was so liberal, had his wits about him, and old Goudron was the keenest at a bargain in all Burgundy, the whole preliminaries were arranged the same morning, and the money was to be paid as soon as possible. “For we are birds of passage,” the Englishman said, “there is no knowing how long we may stay.” That same night, no later, all guarantees having been given, Antoine was to get his price; and thus, after thanks and blessings innumerable, the scene ended. It was a relief to them all when the outpourings of gratitude were over and all those effusive people gone. “In England they would have felt it just as much, but they would not have made such a fuss,” Mr Goulburn said with a sigh of relief. “You could not have done it in England,” said Helen. “I think it is very good of you to do it, papa.” He looked at her with a smile on his face. “Do you know, I think so too--it was very good of me. But it was all for Janey,” he said; “it will come off her fortune. I have got her fortune laid by all safe. I don’t speak of yours, Helen, for you know you have something from your mother. You have a hundred a-year, and as it has always been left untouched to accumulate, there should be a good deal more than a hundred a-year now. It is as well you should know, in case of----” “In case of what, papa? You said we were birds of passage. Did you mean anything? Did you--think we might have to go away?”