Ange Pitou by Alexandre Dumas part three

Pitou, however, smiled at her with such a fascinating air that the words expired before Aunt Angélique could give them utterance.

Then she attempted to smile in her turn, hoping to exorcise that ferocious animal called hunger, which had taken up its abode in the stomach of her nephew.

But the proverb is right; the famished stomach of Pitou remained both deaf and dumb.

His aunt, instead of smiling, wept.

This somewhat incommoded Pitou, but it did not prevent his eating.

“Oh, oh! Aunt, how good you are,” said he, “to cry thus with joy on my arrival! Thanks, my good aunt, thanks.”

And he went on devouring.

Evidently the French Revolution had completely denaturalized this man.

He bolted three fourths of the fowl, and left a small quantity of the rice at the bottom of the dish, saying:

“You like the rice best, do you not, my dear aunt? It is softer for your teeth. I leave you the rice.”

This attention, which she no doubt imagined to be a sarcasm, almost suffocated Aunt Angélique. She resolutely advanced towards young Pitou, snatched the dish from his hands, uttering a blasphemous expression, which, twenty years subsequently, would have appeared admirably suitable to a grenadier of the old guard.

Pitou heaved a sigh.

“Oh, Aunt,” cried he, “you regret your fowl, do you not?”

“The villain!” cried Aunt Angélique, “I believe that he is jeering at me.”

Pitou rose from his chair.

“Aunt,” said he, majestically, “it was not my intention to eat without paying for what I ate. I have money. I will, if you please, board regularly with you; only I shall reserve to myself the right of choosing my own dinner.”

“Rascal!” exclaimed Aunt Angélique.

“Let us see; we will calculate each portion at four sous. I now owe you for one meal; four sous’ worth of rice and two sous’ of bread,—six sous.”

“Six sous!” cried the aunt, “six sous! why there is eight sous’ worth of rice and six sous’ of bread, without counting anything else.”

“Oh, I know I have not allowed anything for the fowl, my good aunt, knowing that it came from your poultryyard; he was an old acquaintance,—I knew him at once by his comb.”

“He was worth his price, however.”

“He was nine years old, at least; I stole him from under his mother’s wing for you. He was then barely as big as my fist; and I recollect even that you beat me, because when I brought him home to you I did not bring you corn enough to feed him the next day. Mademoiselle Catherine gave me some barley. He was my property, and I ate my property; I had good right to do so.”

His aunt, mad with anger, pulverized the Revolutionary hero with a look; she had no voice.

“Get out of this!” murmured she.

“What, at once, so soon after having dined, without even giving me time to digest my dinner? Ah! Aunt, Aunt, that is by no means polite.”

“Out with you!”

Pitou, who had again sat down, rose from the armchair. He found, and that with a most lively feeling of satisfaction, that his stomach could not have contained a single grain of rice more than he had swallowed.

“Aunt,” said he, majestically, “you are an unfeeling relative. I will demonstrate to you that you are now acting as wrongly towards me as you have always done; that you are still as harsh, still as avaricious as ever. Well! I will not allow you to go about telling every one that I have devoured your property.”

He placed himself on the threshold of the door, and in a stentorian voice which might be heard, not only by the inquisitive persons who had accompanied him, and had been present during the whole of this scene, but also by every one who was passing at a distance of five hundred paces:—

“I call these worthy people to witness that, having arrived from Paris, on foot, after having taken the Bastille, being tired and hungry, I seated myself in this house; that I ate my relative’s provisions; that I was so harshly reproached for the food of which I partook, that I was so pitilessly driven from the house, that I feel myself compelled to go.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *