They dined at one little round table, each after his fashion.  When Dard could eat no more, he proceeded to drink; and to talk in proportion.  Riviere, lost in his own thoughts, attended to him as men of business do to a babbling brook; until suddenly from the mass of twaddle broke forth a magic word—­Beaurepaire; then the languid lover pricked up his ears and found Mr. Dard was abusing that noble family right and left.  Young Riviere inquired what ground of offence they had given him.  “I’ll tell you,” said Dard; “they impose on Jacintha; and so she imposes on me.”  Then observing he had at last gained his employer’s ear, he became prodigiously loquacious, as such people generally are when once they get upon their own griefs.

“These Beaurepaire aristocrats,” said he, with his hard peasant good-sense, “are neither the one thing nor the other; they cannot keep up nobility, they have not the means; they will not come down off their perch, they have not the sense.  No, for as small as they are, they must look and talk as big as ever.  They can only afford one servant, and I don’t believe they pay her; but they must be attended on just as obsequious as when they had a dozen.  And this is fatal to all us little people that have the misfortune to be connected with them.”

“Why, how are you connected with them?”

“By the tie of affection.”

“I thought you hated them.”

“Of course I do; but I have the ill-luck to love Jacintha, and she loves these aristocrats, and makes me do little odd jobs for them.”  And at this Dard’s eyes suddenly glared with horror.

“Well, what of that?” asked Riviere.

“What of it, citizen, what? you do not know the fatal meaning of those accursed words?”

“Why, I never heard of a man’s back being broken by little odd jobs.”

“Perhaps not his back, citizen, but his heart? if little odd jobs will not break that, why nothing will.  Torn from place to place, and from trouble to trouble; as soon as one tiresome thing begins to go a bit smooth, off to a fresh plague, in-doors work when it is dry, out-a-doors when it snows; and then all bustle; no taking one’s work quietly, the only way it agrees with a fellow.  ’Milk the cow, Dard, but look sharp; the baroness’s chair wants mending.  Take these slops to the pig, but you must not wait to see him enjoy them:  you are wanted to chop billets.’  Beat the mats, take down the curtains, walk to church (best part of a league), and heat the pew cushions; come back and cut the cabbages, paint the door, and wheel the old lady about the terrace, rub quicksilver on the little dog’s back,—­mind he don’t bite you to make hisself sick,—­repair the ottoman, roll the gravel, scour the kettles, carry half a ton of water up two purostairs, trim the turf, prune the vine, drag the fish-pond; and when you are there, go in and gather water lilies for Mademoiselle Josephine while you are drowning the puppies; that is little odd jobs:  may Satan twist her neck who invented them!”