e doing something
foolish.'

"And she whispered to me as if she had put a red-hot iron under my
nose: 'You are not a man. Now you are going to run away, and surrender
your place! Off you go, Bazaine!'

"Well, I felt that, but yet I did not move, while the other fellow
pulled out a bream, Oh! I never saw such a large one before, never! And
then my wife began to talk aloud, as if she were thinking, and you can
see her trickery. She said: 'That is what one might call stolen fish,
seeing that we baited the place ourselves. At any rate, they ought to
give us back the money we have spent on bait.'

"Then the fat woman in the cotton dress said in turn: 'Do you mean to
call us thieves, Madame?' And they began to explain, and then they came
to words. Oh! Lord! those creatures know some good ones. They shouted
so loud, that our two witnesses, who were on the other bank, began to
call out by way of a joke: 'Less noise over there; you will prevent
your husbands from fishing.'

"The fact is that neither of us moved any more than if we had been two
tree-stumps. We remained there, with our noses over the water, as if we
had heard nothing, but by Jove, we heard all the same. 'You are a mere
liar.'

"'You are nothing better than a street-walker.'

"'You are only a trollop.'

"'You are a regular strumpet.'

"And so on, and so on; a sailor could not have said more.

"Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, and turned round. It was the other
one, the fat woman who had fallen on to my wife with her parasol.
WHACK! WHACK! Melie got two of them, but she was furious, and she hits
hard when she is in a rage, so she caught the fat woman by the hair and
then, THUMP, THUMP. Slaps in the face rained down like ripe plums. I
should have let them go on--women among themselves, men among
themselves--it does not do to mix the blows, but the little man in the
linen jacket jumped up like a devil and was going to rush at my wife.
Ah! no, no, not that, my friend! I caught the gentleman with the end of
my fist, CRASH, CRASH, one on the nose, the other in the stomach. He
threw up his arms and legs and fell on his back into the river, just
into the hole.

"I should have fished him out most certainly, Monsieur le President, if
I had had the time. But unfortunately the fat woman got the better of
it, and she was drubbing Melie terribly. I know that I ought not to
have assisted her while the man was drinking his fill, but I never
thought that he would d