"You don't know, Coco, that your kind friend, who has given you so many things, is poor now, and unhappy perhaps." "We must carry him some more eggs and cake, my little Denise; he'll like to have them, if he's poor. When I lived in the old hut with grandma, I used to be so happy when you brought me some white bread! I didn't use to have it very often then." Denise kissed Coco; what the child said had given rise to a secret hope in her heart. She wiped her eyes and returned to the living-room, where the party had been increased by the arrival of a villager, formerly the school-teacher, who had come to pay Mère Fourcy a visit, and at sight of the two young ladies from Paris, had come near knocking over a wardrobe, in order to make a more graceful bow; while Virginie winked at Cézarine, who hid her face in her napkin to avoid laughing in the face of the newcomer, whose features were an exact reproduction of the absurd masks sold in Carnival time. "Good-day, neighbor Mauflard," said Mère Fourcy to the ex-school-teacher. "Good-day, neighbor Fourcy." "How goes it, neighbor Mauflard?" "Very well, neighbor Fourcy. Faith, I didn't have anything to do, so I says to myself: 'I'll just go and see neighbor Fourcy.'" "That's right good of you, neighbor." "But if you've got company, I don't want to be in the way." "Do stay, Monsieur Mauflard," said Virginie; "we should be terribly distressed to frighten you away." "I don't believe that monthieur ith afraid of the fair thex." The neighbor replied with a second bow, so low that he could have picked a coin from the floor with his teeth; then he took a chair and seated himself. "You'll take a drink, neighbor Mauflard, won't you?" "With pleasure, Mère Fourcy." A glass was filled for neighbor Mauflard, and this he emptied after bowing to the whole company; then he settled back in his chair, murmuring: "That's good, very good--always the same." "Who is neighbor Mauflard?" Virginie asked Aunt Fourcy in a whisper. "Oh! he's a very fine man. He used to keep a school in the village; but not long ago he retired, as he didn't have but two scholars." "I'm thorry for that; I'd have thent Hecuba to him." "What does she mean by Hecuba?" "That's my cousin's daughter--a charming child; she isn't three yet, and she bites at everything." "Oh! that'th tho; the'd bite at marble!" "Neighbor Mauflard is one of the most knowing men hereabout." "Anyone can see that by looking at him. But he don't say anything. Have another glass, Monsieur Mauflard?" The neighbor's only reply was a prolonged snore; according to his custom, he had already fallen asleep. "Why, he's asleep!" said Virginie. "Oh, yes, that's his way; as soon as he comes in, he sits down and shuts his eyes." "That certainly makes him a very pleasant companion!" "He'th like that villain of a Théodore, who alwayth uthed to go to thleep ath thoon ath he had thaid thome blackguardly thing to me."