e he heard words and gasps, which made him
suspect a flagrant breach of morality. Advancing, therefore, on his
hands and knees, as if to surprise a poacher, he had arrested the couple
who were there present, at the very moment when they were going to
abandon themselves to their natural instincts.

The Mayor looked at the culprits in astonishment, for the man was
certainly sixty, and the woman fifty-five at least, and so he began to
question them, beginning with the man, who replied in such a weak voice
that he could scarcely be heard.

"What is your name?" "Nicolas Beaurain." "Your occupation?"
"Haberdasher, in the Rue des Martyrs, in Paris." "What were you doing in
the wood?" The haberdasher remained silent, with his eyes on his fat
stomach; and his hand resting on his thighs, and the Mayor continued:
"Do you deny what the officer of the municipal authorities states?" "No,
Monsieur." "So you confess it?" "Yes, Monsieur." "What have you to say
in your defense?" "Nothing, Monsieur." "Where did you meet the partner
in your misdemeanor?" "She is my wife, Monsieur." "Your wife?" "Yes,
Monsieur." "Then ... then ... you do not live together ... in Paris?" "I
beg your pardon, Monsieur, but we are living together!" "But in that
case ... you must be mad, altogether mad, my dear sir, to get caught
like that, in the country at ten o'clock in the morning."

The haberdasher seemed ready to cry with shame, and he murmured: "It was
she who enticed me! I told her it was very stupid, but when a woman has
got a thing into her head ... you know ... you cannot get it out of
it."

The Mayor, who liked open speaking, smiled and replied: "In your case,
the contrary ought to have happened. You would not be here, if she had
had the idea only in her head!" Then Monsieur Beaurain was seized with
rage, and turning to his wife, he said: "Do you see to what you have
brought us with your poetry? And now we shall have to go before the
Courts, at our age, for a breach of morals! And we shall have to shut up
the shop, sell our good will and go to some other neighborhood! That's
what it has come to!"

Madame Beaurain got up, and without looking at her husband, she
explained herself without any embarrassment, without useless modesty,
and almost without hesitation.

"Of course, Monsieur, I know that we have made ourselves ridiculous.
Will you allow me to plead my cause like an advocate; or rather like a
poor woman; and I hope that you will be kind e