' For you must know, that,
besides an old woman over eighty years old, he also assassinated a young
girl of twelve. The little child, the magistrate told me, was chopped
into bits."
"Ah!" put in Joseph; "he must have been a great fool. Do people do those
sort of things themselves when they are rich, and when there are so many
poor devils who only ask to gain their living?"
"Pshaw!" said M. Lubin in a knowing tone; "you will see him come out of
it as white as snow. These rich men can do anything."
"Anyhow," said the cook, "I'd willingly give a month's wages to be a
mouse, and to listen to what the count and the tall dark fellow are
talking about. Suppose some one went up and tried to find out what is
going on."
This proposition did not meet with the least favour. The servants
knew by experience that, on important occasions, spying was worse than
useless.
M. de Commarin knew all about servants from infancy. His study was,
therefore, a shelter from all indiscretion. The sharpest ear placed at
the keyhole could hear nothing of what was going on within, even when
the master was in a passion, and his voice loudest. One alone, Denis,
the count's valet, had the opportunity of gathering information; but he
was well paid to be discreet, and he was so.
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