now, and if he gets
the courts as well, and keeps such advisers as the abbe and Michaud we
sha'n't dance at the wedding; he'll play us some scurvy trick or other."

"How is it that in all these five years you have never managed to get
rid of that abbe?" said Lupin.

"You don't know him; he's as suspicious as a blackbird," replied Rigou.
"He is not a man at all, that priest; he doesn't care for women; I can't
find out that he has any passion; there's no point at which one can
attack him. The general lays himself open by his temper. A man with a
vice is the servant of his enemies if they know how to pull its string.
There are no strong men but those who lead their vices instead of being
led by them. The peasants are all right; their hatred against the abbe
keeps up; but we can do nothing as yet. He's like Michaud, in his
way; such men are too good for this world,--God ought to call them to
himself."

"It would be a good plan to find some pretty servant-girl to scrub his
staircase," remarked Madame Soudry. The words caused Rigou to give the
little jump with which crafty natures recognize the craft of others.

"The Shopman has another vice," he said; "he loves his wife; we might
get hold of him that way."

"We ought to find out how far she really influences him," said Madame
Soudry.

"There's the rub!" said Lupin.

"As for you, Lupin," said Rigou, in a tone of authority, "be off to the
Prefecture and see the beautiful Madame Sarcus at once! You must get her
to tell you all the Shopman says and does at the Prefecture."

"Then I shall have to stay all night," replied Lupin.

"So much the better for Sarcus the rich; he'll be the gainer," said
Rigou. "She is not yet out of date, Madame Sarcus--"

"Oh! Monsieur Rigou," said Madame Soudry, in a mincing tone, "are women
ever out of date?"

"You may be right about Madame Sarcus; she doesn't paint before the
glass," retorted Rigou, who was always disgusted by the exhibition of
the Cochet's ancient charms.

Madame Soudry, who thought she used only a "suspicion" of rouge, did not
perceive the sarcasm and hastened to say:--

"Is it possible that women paint?"

"Now, Lupin," said Rigou, without replying to this naivete, "go over
to Gaubertin's to-morrow morning. Tell him that my fellow-mayor and I"
(striking Soudry on the thigh) "will break bread with him at breakfast
somewhere about midday. Tell him everything, so that we may all have
thought it over before we meet, f