he said, suddenly becoming as meek as a lamb,
"you will give me a new one."

"We will talk about that," said Max, beginning to descend.

When they reached the bottom and met the first hilarious group, Max
took Fario by the button of his jacket and said to him,--

"Yes, my good Fario, I'll give you a magnificent cart, if you will
give me two hundred and fifty francs; but I won't warrant it to go,
like this one, up a tower."

At this last jest Fario became as cool as though he were making a
bargain.

"Damn it!" he said, "give me the wherewithal to replace my barrow, and
it will be the best use you ever made of old Rouget's money."

Max turned livid; he raised his formidable fist to strike Fario; but
Baruch, who knew that the blow would descend on others besides the
Spaniard, plucked the latter away like a feather and whispered to
Max,--

"Don't commit such a folly!"

The grand master, thus called to order, began to laugh and said to
Fario,--

"If I, by accident, broke your barrow, and you in return try to
slander me, we are quits."

"Not yet," muttered Fario. "But I am glad to know what my barrow was
worth."

"Ah, Max, you've found your match!" said a spectator of the scene, who
did not belong to the Order of Idleness.

"Adieu, Monsieur Gilet. I haven't thanked you yet for lending me a
hand," cried the Spaniard, as he kicked the sides of his horse and
disappeared amid loud hurrahs.

"We will keep the tires of the wheels for you," shouted a wheelwright,
who had come to inspect the damage done to the cart.

One of the shafts was sticking upright in the ground, as straight as a
tree. Max stood by, pale and thoughtful, and deeply annoyed by Fario's
speech. For five days after this, nothing was talked of in Issoudun
but the tale of the Spaniard's barrow; it was even fated to travel
abroad, as Goddet remarked,--for it went the round of Berry, where the
speeches of Fario and Max were repeated, and at the end of a week the
affair, greatly to the Spaniard's satisfaction, was still the talk of
the three departments and the subject of endless gossip. In
consequence of the vindictive Spaniard's terrible speech, Max and the
Rabouilleuse became the object of certain comments which were merely
whispered in Issoudun, though they were spoken aloud in Bourges,
Vatan, Vierzon, and Chateauroux. Maxence Gilet knew enough of that
region of the country to guess how envenomed such comments would
become.

"We can't stop thei