"Excuse me, young man," said the carpenter, interrupting him; "I don't know what your father intended, but I know well enough what I never intend, and that is to owe him anything, to accept any favor from the man who began by having me put in prison to force me to accept his pretended benefactions and his hard terms. Thanks! I esteem you, but as to your father, let's say no more about him; let's never talk about him again. Come, come, haven't any of you guessed? Well, what would you say if I should tell you it was Monsieur de Boisguilbault?" That name, which Emile had heard before, for somebody had mentioned it in his presence at Gargilesse as that of one of the richest landed proprietors in the neighborhood, produced the effect of an electric shock on the inhabitants of Châteaubrun: Gilberte jumped; Antoine and Janille stared at each other, unable to utter a word. "That surprises you a little, does it?" continued the carpenter. "It seems impossible," replied Janille. "Are you joking? Monsieur de Boisguilbault, the enemy of all of us?" "Why say so?" said Monsieur Antoine. "That man is nobody's enemy intentionally; he has always done good, never harm." "For my part," said Gilberte, "I was sure that he was capable of a good action. What did I tell you, dear little mother? he's an unhappy man, anybody can see that on his face; but----" "But you don't know him," rejoined Janille, "and you can't say anything about him. Come, Jean, tell us by what miracle you succeeded in approaching that cold, stern, haughty man." "Chance, or rather the good Lord did it all," replied the carpenter. "I was going through the little wood that skirts his park, and is separated from it at that point only by a hedge and a narrow ditch. I glanced over the hedge to see how beautiful and neat and well-kept everything was. I was thinking, a little sadly, that I had once been perfectly at home in that park and that château; that I had worked there for twenty years, and that I had been fond of monsieur le marquis, although he was never very amiable. Still he had his kind days in those times; and yet, for another twenty years I hadn't put my foot on his land, and I shouldn't dare to ask him for shelter after what had taken place between him and me.