to deposit with the concierge the thousand and one utensils belonging
to the great Schinner. Oscar was thunderstruck when he became aware
that Mistigris and his master, the witnesses of his bravado, were to
be installed in the chateau itself. In ten minutes Pierrotin had
discharged the various packages of the painter, the bundles of Oscar
Husson, and the pretty little leather portmanteau, which he took from
its nest of hay and confided mysteriously to the wife of the
concierge. Then he drove out of the courtyard, cracking his whip, and
took the road that led through the forest to Isle-Adam, his face
beaming with the sly expression of a peasant who calculates his
profits. Nothing was lacking now to his happiness; on the morrow he
would have his thousand francs, and, as a consequence, his magnificent
new coach.



CHAPTER VI

THE MOREAU INTERIOR

Oscar, somewhat abashed, was skulking behind a clump of trees in the
centre of the court-yard, and watching to see what became of his two
road-companions, when Monsieur Moreau suddenly came out upon the
portico from what was called the guard-room. He was dressed in a long
blue overcoat which came to his heels, breeches of yellowish leather
and top-boots, and in his hand he carried a riding-whip.

"Ah! my boy, so here you are? How is the dear mamma?" he said, taking
Oscar by the hand. "Good-day, messieurs," he added to Mistigris and
his master, who then came forward. "You are, no doubt, the two