He had in mind what he was going to say when Alice and he should
be alone together. It was a pretty speech, he thought; indeed a
very thrilling little speech, by the way it stirred his own nerve-
centers as he conned it over.
Madame Roussillon met him at the door in not a very good humor.
"Is Mademoiselle Alice here?" he ventured to demand.
"Alice? no, she's not here; she's never here just when I want her
most. V'la le picbois et la grive--see the woodpecker and the
robin--eating the cherries, eating every one of them, and that
girl running off somewhere instead of staying here and picking
them," she railed in answer to the young man's polite inquiry. "I
haven't seen her these four hours, neither her nor that rascally
hunchback, Jean. They're up to some mischief, I'll be bound!"
Madame Roussillon puffed audibly between phrases; but she suddenly
became very mild when relieved of her tirade.
"Mais entrez," she added in a pleasant tone, "come in and tell me
the news."
Rene's disappointment rushed into his face, but he managed to
laugh it aside.
"Father Beret has just been telling me," said Madame Roussillon,
"that our friend Long-Hair made some trouble last night. How about
it?"
Rene told her what he knew and added that Long-Hair would
probably never be seen again.
"He was shot, no doubt of it," he went on, "and is now being
nibbled by fish and turtles.
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