“A general of the Imperial Guard running away from the rascals, when Madame la comtesse likes Les Aigues!” he said.  “No, I’ll sooner box Gaubertin’s ears on the market-place of Ville-aux-Fayes, and force him to fight me that I may shoot him like a dog.”

“Monsieur le comte, Gaubertin is not such a fool as to let himself be brought into collision with you.  Besides, you could not openly insult the mayor of so important a place as Ville-aux-Fayes.”

“I’ll have him turned out; the Troisvilles can do that for me; it is a question of income.”

“You won’t succeed, Monsieur le comte; Gaubertin’s arms are long; you will get yourself into difficulties from which you cannot escape.”

“Let us think of the present,” interrupted the general.  “About that suit?”

“That, Monsieur le comte, I can manage to win for you,” replied Sibilet, with a knowing glance.

“Bravo, Sibilet!” said the general, shaking his steward’s hand; “how are you going to do it?”

“You will win it on a writ of error,” replied Sibilet.  “In my opinion the Gravelots have the right of it.  But it is not enough to be in the right, they must also be in order as to legal forms, and that they have neglected.  The Gravelots ought to have summoned you to have the woods better watched.  They can’t ask for indemnity, at the close of a lease, for damages which they know have been going on for nine years; there is a clause in the lease as to this, on which we can file a bill of exceptions.  You will lose the suit at Ville-aux-Fayes, possibly in the upper court as well, but we will carry it to Paris and you will win at the Court of Appeals.  The costs will be heavy and the expenses ruinous.  You will have to spend from twelve to fifteen thousand francs merely to win the suit,—­but you will win it, if you care to.  The suit will only increase the enmity of the Gravelots, for the expenses will be even heavier on them.  You will be their bugbear; you will be called litigious and calumniated in every way; still, you can win—­”

“Then, what’s to be done?” repeated the general, on whom Sibilet’s arguments were beginning to produce the effect of a violent poison.

Just then the remembrance of the blows he had given Gaubertin with his cane crossed his mind, and made him wish he had bestowed them on himself.  His flushed face was enough to show Sibilet the irritation that he felt.

“You ask me what can be done, Monsieur le comte?  Why, only one thing, compromise; but of course you can’t negotiate that yourself.  I must be thought to cheat you!  We, poor devils, whose only fortune and comfort is in our good name, it is hard on us to even seem to do a questionable thing.  We are always judged by appearances.  Gaubertin himself saved Mademoiselle Laguerre’s life during the Revolution, but it seemed to others that he was robbing her.  She rewarded him in her will with a diamond worth ten thousand francs, which Madame Gaubertin now wears on her head.”