"What! do you think I have given you bad money? Send and get change for one of them; but make haste about it. I say, again, how much for the garments the poor girl is wearing?" The ogress, divided between her desire to make a good harvest, her surprise to see a workman with so much money, the fear of being cheated, and the hopes of still greater gain, was silent for an instant, and then replied, "Oh, them things is well worth a hundred francs." "What! those rags? Come, now, you shall keep the change from yesterday, and I'll give you another louis, and no more. If I give you all I have, I shall cheat the poor, who ought to get some alms out of me." "Well, then, my fine fellow, I'll keep my things, and Goualeuse sha'n't go out. I have a right to sell my things for what I choose." "May Lucifer one day fry you as you deserve! Here's your money; go and look for Goualeuse." The ogress pocketed the gold, thinking that the workman had committed a robbery, or received a legacy, and then said, with a nasty leer, "Well, indeed! Why not go up-stairs, and find Goualeuse yourself; she'll be very glad to see you, for, on my life, she was much smitten with you yesterday?" "Do you go and fetch her, and tell her I will take her into the country; that's all you need say; not a word about my having paid you her debt." "Why not?" "What's that to you?" "Oh, nothing; it's no matter to me; I would rather that she still believed herself in my clutch--" "Will you hold your tongue, and do as I bid you?" "Oh, what a cross creetur you are! I pity anybody who is under you. Well, I'm going, I'm going;" and the ogress went up-stairs. After a few minutes she came down again. "Goualeuse would not believe me, and really turned quite crimson when she knew you were here; and when I told her that I would give her leave to pass the day in the country, I thought she would have gone crazy,--for the first time in her life she was inclined to throw her arms about my neck." "That was her delight at leaving you." Fleur-de-Marie entered at this moment, dressed as she was the over-night, with her gown of brown stuff, her little orange shawl tied behind her, and her handkerchief of red checks over her head, leaving only two thick bands of light hair visible. She blushed when she saw Rodolph, and looked down with a confused air. "Would you like to pass the day in the country with me, my lass?" asked Rodolph. "Very much, indeed, M. Rodolph," said Goualeuse, "since madame gives me leave." "Yes, yes, you may go, my little duck, because you're such a good gal. Come and kiss me afore you go." And the old beldam offered her bloated lips to Fleur-de-Marie. The poor girl, overcoming her disgust, bent her forehead to the ogress, but Rodolph, giving a sudden push with his elbow, shoved the hag back on her seat, took Fleur-de-Marie's arm, and left the _tapis-franc_, amidst the loud maledictions of Mother Ponisse.