They
were ushered into the drawing-room where the General was holding
his levee; they remained there from five to ten minutes, and then,
bowing low with hat in hand, they retired with radiant
countenances, and an obsequious smile on their lips. So they had
been paid. And as if to prove to Mademoiselle Marguerite that her
suspicions were correct, she chanced to be present when the livery
stable-keeper presented his bill.
Madame de Fondege received him very haughtily. "Ah! here you
are!" she exclaimed, rudely, as soon as he appeared. "So you are
the man who teaches his drivers to insult his customers? That is
an excellent way to gain patronage. What! I hire a one-horse
carriage from you by the month, and because I happen to wish for a
two-horse vehicle for a single day, you make me pay the
difference. You should demand payment in advance if you are so
suspicious."
The stable-keeper, who had a bill for nearly four thousand francs
in his pocket, stood listening with the air of a man who is
meditating some crushing reply; but she did not give him time to
deliver it. "When I have cause to complain of the people I
employ, I dismiss them and replace them by others. Insolence is
one of those things that I never forgive. Give me your bill."
The man, in whose face doubt, fear, and hope had succeeded each
other in swift succession, thereupon drew an interminable bill
from his pocket.
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