We have a right to our wood.  The late Madame allowed us to take it.  That’s thirty years ago, so the right is ours.’  ‘We’ll see what we shall see next winter,’ replied the second.  ’My man has sworn the great oath that all the gendarmerie in the world sha’n’t keep us from getting our wood; he says he means to get it himself, and if the worst happens so much the worse for them!’ ’Good God!’ cried the other; ’we can’t die of cold, and we must bake bread to eat!  They want for nothing, those others! the wife of that scoundrel of a Michaud will be taken care of, I warrant you!’ And then, Madame, they said such horrible things of me and of you and of Monsieur le comte; and they finally declared that the farms would all be burned, and then the chateau.”

“Bah!” said Emile, “idle talk!  They have been robbing the general, and they will not be allowed to rob him any longer.  These people are furious, that’s the whole of it.  You must remember that the law and the government are always strongest everywhere, even in Burgundy.  In case of an outbreak the general could bring a regiment of cavalry here, if necessary.”

The abbe made a sign to Madame Michaud from behind the countess, telling her to say no more about her fears, which were doubtless the effect of that second sight which true passion bestows.  The soul, dwelling exclusively on one only being, grasps in the end the moral elements that surround it, and sees in them the makings of the future.  The woman who loves feels the same presentiments that later illuminate her motherhood.  Hence a certain melancholy, a certain inexplicable sadness which surprises men, who are one and all distracted from any such concentration of their souls by the cares of life and the continual necessity for action.  All true love becomes to a woman an active contemplation, which is more or less lucid, more or less profound, according to her nature.

“Come, my dear, show your home to Monsieur Emile,” said the countess, whose mind was so pre-occupied that she forgot La Pechina, who was the ostensible object of her visit.

The interior of the restored pavilion was in keeping with its exterior.  On the ground-floor the old divisions had been replaced, and the architect, sent from Paris with his own workmen (a cause of bitter complaint in the neighborhood against the master of Les Aigues), had made four rooms out of the space.  First, an ante-chamber, at the farther end of which was a winding wooden staircase, behind which came the kitchen; on either side of the antechamber was a dining-room and a parlor panelled in oak now nearly black, with armorial bearings in the divisions of the ceilings.  The architect chosen by Madame de Montcornet for the restoration of Les Aigues had taken care to put the furniture of this room in keeping with its original decoration.