第14章

"This is a tender avowal I have just made; for believe me, it is years since I have thought of looking for anybody; but as in your estimation I have not been very courteous, and as I pride myself on my good manners, I wish to obtain your pardon by flattering you a little.""This is too much goodness," answered Gilbert."Don't take the trouble.The best course you can pursue to win my esteem is to trouble yourself about me as little as possible.""And you will do the same in regard to me?"

"Remember that matters are not equal between us.I am but an insect,--it is easy for you to avoid me, whilst--""You are not talking with common sense," interrupted Stephane;"look at this green beetle crawling across the road.I see him, but he does not see me.But to drop this bantering--for it's quite out of character with me--what I like in you is your remarkable frankness, it really amuses me.By the way, be good enough to tell me what book that is which never leaves you for a moment and which you ponder over with such intensity.Do tell me," added he in a coaxing, childish tone, "what is the book that you press to your heart with so much tenderness."Gilbert handed it to him.

"'Essay on the Metamorphosis of Plants.' So, plants have the privilege of changing themselves? Mon Dieu, they must be happy!

But they ought to tell us their secret."

Then closing the volume, and returning it to Gilbert, he exclaimed:

"Happy man! you live among the plants of the field as if in your element.Are you not something of a plant yourself? I am not sure but that you have just now stopped reading to say to the primroses and anemones covering this slope, 'I am your brother!' Mon Dieu! Iam sorry to have disturbed the charming conversation! And hold!

your eyes are a little the color of the periwinkle."He turned his head and looked at Gilbert with a scornful air, and had already prepared to leave him, when a glance over the road dispersed his ill-humor, for in the distance he saw Wilhelm and his comrades returning from the fete.

"Come quick, my children," cried he, rising in his stirrups."Come quick, my lambs, for I have something of the greatest importance to propose to you."Hearing his challenge, the children raised their eyes and recognizing Stephane, they stopped and took counsel together.The somewhat brutal impudence of the young Russian had given him a bad reputation, and the little peasants would rather have turned back than encounter his morose jesting or his terrible whip.

The three apostles and the five angels, after consulting together, concluded prudently to beat a retreat, when Stephane drawing from his pocket a great leather purse, shook it in the air crying, "There is money to be gained here,--come, my dear children, you shall have all you want."The large, full purse which Stephane shook in his hand was a very tempting bait for the eight children; but his whip, which he held under his left arm, warned them to be careful.Hesitating between fear and covetousness, they stood still like the ass in the fable between his two bundles of hay; but Stephane at that moment was seized with a happy inspiration and threw his switch to the top of a neighboring tree, where it rested.This produced a magical effect, the children with one accord deciding to approach him, although with slow and hesitating steps.Wilhelm alone, remembering his recent treatment, darted into a path nearby and disappeared in the bushes.

The troop of children stopped a dozen paces from Stephane and formed in a group, the little ones hiding behind the larger.All of them fumbled nervously with the ends of their belts, and kept their heads down, awkward and ashamed, with eyes fixed upon the ground, but casting sidelong glances at the great leather purse which danced between Stephane's hands.

"You, Saint Peter," said he to them in a grave tone; "you, Saint John, and your five dear little angels of Heaven, listen to me closely.You have sung to-day very pretty songs in honor of the good Lord; he will reward you some day in the other world; but for the little pleasures people give me, I reward them at once.So every one of you shall have a bright dollar, if you will do the little thing I ask.It is only to kiss delicately and respectfully the toe of my boot.I tell you again, that this little ceremony will gain for each of you a bright dollar, and you will afterwards have the happiness of knowing that you have learned to do something which you can't do too well if you want to get on in this world."The seven children looked at Stephane with a sheepish air and open mouths.Not one of them stirred.Their immobility, and their seven pairs of fixed round eyes directed upon him, provoked him.

"Come, my little lambs," he continued persuasively, "don't stretch your eyes in this way; they look like barn doors wide open.You should do this bravely and neatly.Ah! mon Dieu! you will see it done often enough, and do it yourselves again too in your lifetime.

There must always be a beginning.Come on, make haste.A thaler is worth thirty-six silbergroschen, and a silbergroschen is worth ten pfennigs, and for five pfennigs you can buy a cake, a hot muffin, or a little man in licorice--"And shaking the leather purse again, he cried:

"Ah, what a pretty sound that makes! How pleasantly the click, click of these coins sounds to our ears.All music is discordant compared to that.Nightingales and thrushes, stop your concerts!