I owe it to a past made happy by
kindness which is to me like life itself. Monsieur Masson, is it not so?"
he added, turning to the master-carpenter. More flushed and agitated than
when he had faced Jean Jacques in the flume, the master-carpenter said:
"If she wants a few words-of farewell--alone with me, she must have it,
M'sieu' Fille. The other room--eh? Outside there"--he jerked a finger
towards the street--"they won't know that you are not with us; and as for
Jean Jacques, isn't it possible for a Clerk of the Court to stretch the
truth a little? Isn't the Clerk of the Court a man as well as a mummy?
I'd do as much for you, little lawyer, any time. A word to say farewell,
you understand!" He looked M. Fille squarely in the eye.
"If I had to answer M. Jean Jacques on such a matter--and so much at
stake--"
Masson interrupted. "Well, if you like we'll bind your eyes and put wads
in your ears, and you can stay, so that you'll have been in the room all
the time, and yet have heard and seen nothing at all. How is that,
m'sieu'? It's all right, isn't it?"
M. Fille stood petrified for a moment at the audacity of the proposition.
For him, the Clerk of the Court, to be blinded and made ridiculous with
wads in his ears-impossible!
"Grace of Heaven, I would prefer to lie!" he answered quickly. "I will go
into the next room, but I beg that you be brief, monsieur and madame.
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