made use of such a vulgar expression as that," observed
Rousselet, turning to Lambernier, "you were at fault, and should beg his
pardon as is the custom among educated people."

"It is false!" exclaimed Lambernier; "and besides, everybody calls the
Corandeuils that, on account of the color of their livery."

"Did you not say Sunday, at the 'Femme-sans-Tete', and in the presence of
Thiedot, that all the servants of the chateau were idlers and
good-for-nothings, and that if you met one of them who tried to annoy
you, you would level him with your plane?"

"If you used the word 'level,' it was very uncivil," observed Rousselet.

"Thiedot had better keep in his own house," growled the carpenter,
clenching his fists.

"It looks well for a tramp like you to insult gentlemen like us,"
continued the lackey, in an imposing tone. "And did you not say that when
I took Mademoiselle to mass I looked like a green toad upon the box,
..thus trying to dishonor my physique and my clothes? Did you not say
that?"

"Only a joke about the color of your livery. They call the others measles
and lobsters."

"Lobsters are lobsters," replied the coachman, in an imperative tone; "if
that vexes them, they can take care of themselves. But I will not allow
any one to attack my honor or that of my beasts by calling them
screws--and that is what you did, you vagabond! And did you not say that
I sent bags of oats to Remiremont to be sold, and that, for a month, my
team had steadily been getting thin? Did you ever hear anything so
scandalous, Pere Rousselet? to dare to say that I endanger the lives of
my horses? Did you not say that, you rascal? And did you not say that
Mademoiselle Marianne and I had little private feasts in her room, and
that was why I could not eat more at the table? Here is Rousselet, who
has been a doctor and knows that I am on a diet on account of my weak
stomach." At these words, the servant, carried away by his anger, gave
his stomach a blow with his fist.

"Lambernier," said Rousselet, turning up his lips with a look of
contempt, "I must admit that, for a man well brought up, you have made
most disgusting remarks."

"To say that I eat the horses' oats!" roared the coachman.

"I ought to have said that you drank them," replied Lambernier, with his
usual sneer.

"Rousselet, out of the way!" exclaimed the burly lackey at this new
insult; the old peasant not moving as quickly as he desired, he seized
him by the arm an