t was in despair, and it seemed to him as if he had been
paying that annuity for fifty years, that he had been taken in, done,
that he was ruined. From time to time he went to see his annuitant, just
as one goes in July to see when the harvest is likely to begin. She
always met him with a cunning look, and one would have felt inclined to
think that she was congratulating herself on the trick she had played
him. Seeing how well and hearty she seemed, he very soon got into his
tilbury again, growling to himself:

"Will you never die, you old brute?"

He did not know what to do, and he felt inclined to strangle her when he
saw her. He hated her with a ferocious, cunning hatred, the hatred of a
peasant who has been robbed, and began to cast about for means of
getting rid of her.

One day he came to see her again, rubbing his hands like he did the
first time when he proposed the bargain, and, after having chatted for a
few minutes, he said:

"Why do you never come and have a bit of dinner at my place when you are
in Epreville? The people are talking about it, and saying that we are
not on friendly terms, and that pains me. You know it will cost you
nothing if you come, for I don't look at the price of a dinner. Come
whenever you feel inclined; I shall be very glad to see you."

Old Mother Magloire did not need to be told twice, and the next day but
one, as she was going to town in any case, it being market-day, in her
gig, driven by her man, she, without any demur, put her trap up in
Chicot's stable, and went in search of her promised dinner.

The publican was delighted, and treated her like a lady, giving her
roast fowl, blackpudding, leg of mutton, and bacon and cabbage. But she
ate next to nothing. She had always been a small eater, and had
generally lived on a little soup and a crust of bread and butter.

Chicot was disappointed, and pressed her to eat more, but she refused,
and she would drink next to nothing either, and declined any coffee, so
he asked her:

"But surely, you will take a little drop of brandy or liqueur?"

"Well, as to that, I don't know that I will refuse." Whereupon he
shouted out:

"Rosalie, bring the superfine brandy,--_the special_,--you know."

The servant appeared, carrying a long bottle ornamented with a paper
vine-leaf, and he filled two liqueur glasses.

"Just try that; you will find it first-rate."

The good woman drank it slowly in sips, so as to make the pleasure last
all th