man," said the stranger, after a cold silence which began to worry the youth. "And my wife, who is a genuine Parisian, will probably grumble at our coming home late. Besides, she does not like strangers. Still, I have invited you; so, come along. Or, rather, here we are."
By the last sunbeams, Gilbert, looking up, saw the name-plate of Plastrière Street at a corner.
The other paused before an alley door with iron bars to the upper portion. He pulled a leather thong hanging out of a hole, and this opened the door.
"Come quickly," he called to the youth, who hesitated on the threshold, and he closed the alley door after them.
At the end of a few steps up the dark passage, Gilbert stumbled on the lower step of a black, steep flight of stairs. Used to the locality, the old gentleman had gone up a dozen steps. Gilbert rejoined him and stopped only when he did, on a landing worn by feet, on which opened two doors. The stranger pulled a hare's foot hanging at one, and a shrill bell tinkled inside the room.
A woman some fifty years of age appeared, and she and the man spoke together:
"Is it very late, Therese?" asked the latter timidly.
"A nice hour to come to supper, Jacques!" snarled the woman.
"Come, come, we will make up for the delay," said the one called Jacques, shutting the door and taking the collecting case from Gilbert's hands.
"Have we a messenger boy here?" exclaimed the old woman: "We only wanted him to complete the merry company. So you can no longer do so much as carry your heap of weeds and grass? Master Jacques does the grand with a boy to carry his trash—I beg his pardon, he is becoming quite a great nobleman."
"Be a little quiet, Therese."
"Pay the boy and get rid of him; we want no spies here."
Pale as death, Gilbert sprang toward the door, but Jacques stopped him, saying with some firmness:
"This is not a messenger-boy or a spy. He is a guest whom I bring home."
"A guest?" and the hag let her hands drop along her hips. "This is the last straw."
"Light up, Therese," said the host, still kindly, but showing more will; "I am warm, and we are hungry."
The vixen's grumbling diminished in loudness. She drew fire with flint and steel, while Gilbert stood still by the sill which he regretted he had crossed. Jacques perceived what he suffered, and begged him to come forward.
Gilbert saw the hag's yellow and morose face by the first glimmer of the thin candle stuck in a brass candlestick. It inspired him with dislike. On her part the virago was far from liking the pale, fine countenance, circumspect silence and rigidity of the youth.
"I do not wonder at your being heated and hungry," she growled. "It must be tiresome to go browsing in the woods, and it is awful hard work to stoop from time to time to pick up a root. For I suppose this person gathers leaves and buds, too, for herb-collecting is the trade for those who do not any work."
"This is a good and honest young man," said Jacques, in a still firmer voice, "who has honored me with his company all day, and whom my good Therese will greet as a friend, I am sure."
"Enough for two is scant for three," she grumbled.
"We are both frugal."
"I know your kind of frugality. I declare that there is not enough bread in the house for such abstemiousness, and that I am not going down three flights of stairs for more. Anyway, the baker's is shut up."
"Then, I will go," said Jacques, frowning. "Open the door, for I mean it."
"Oh, in that case, I suppose I must do it," said the scold.
"What am I for but to carry out your freaks? Come and have supper."
A table was set in the next room, small and square, with cherry wood chairs, having straw bottoms, and a bureau full of darned hose.
Gilbert took a chair; the old woman placed a plate and the appurtenances, all worn with hard use, before him, with a pewter goblet.
"I thought you were going after bread?" said Jacques.
"Never mind; I found a roll in the cupboard, and you ought to manage on a pound and a half of bread, eh?"
So saying, she put the soup on the board. All three had good appetites, but Gilbert held in his, but he was the first to get through.
"Who has called to-day?" inquired the host, to change the termagant's ideas.
"The whole world, as usual. You promised Lady Boufflers four quires of music, Lady Escars two arias, and Lady Penthievre a quartet with accompaniment. They came or sent. But the ladies must go without their music because our lord was out plucking dandelions."
Jacques did not show anger, though Gilbert expected him to do so, for he was used to this manner. The soup was followed by a chunk of boiled beef, on a delft plate grooved with knife points. The host served Gilbert scantily, as Therese was watching, took the same sized piece and passed the plate to his Xantippe.
She handed a slice of bread to the guest. It was so small that Jacques blushed, but he waited until she had helped him and herself, when he took the loaf from her. He handed it to Gilbert and bade him cut off according to his wants.
"Thank you," said Gilbert, as some beans in butter were served, "but I have no longer any hunger. I never eat but one dish. And I drink only water."
Jacques had a little wine for himself.
"You must see about the young man's bed," said the latter, putting down the bottle. "He must be tired."
Therese dropped her fork and stared at the speaker.
"Sleep here? you must be mad. Bring people home to sleep—I expect you want to give up your own bed to them. You must be off your head. Is it keeping a lodging-house you are about? If this is so, don't look to me! get a cook and servants. It is bad enough to be yours, without waiting on Tom, Dick and Harry."
"Therese, listen to me," replied Jacques, with his grave, even voice; "it is for one night only. This young man has never set foot in Paris, and comes under my safe-conduct. I am not going to have him go to an inn, though he has to have my own bed, look you."
Therese understood that struggle was out of the question for the present and she changed her tactics by fighting for Gilbert, but as an ally who would stab him in the back at the first chance.
"I daresay you know all about him, or you would not have brought him home, and he ought to stay here. I will shake up some kind of a bed in your study among the papers."
"No, no, a study is not fit for a sleeping-room; a light might set fire to the writings."
"Which would be no loss," sneered Therese.
"There is the garret; the room with a fine outlook over such gardens as are scarce in Paris. Have no anxiety, Therese; the young man will not be a burden; he will earn his own living. Take a candle and follow me."
Therese sighed, but she was mastered. Gilbert gravely rose and followed his benefactor. On the landing Gilbert saw drinking water in a tank.
"Is water dear in town?" he inquired.
"They charge for it; but any way, bread and water are two things which man has no right to refuse to his fellow-man."
"But at Taverney, water ran freely, and the luxury of the poor is cleanliness."
"Take as much as you like, my friend," said Master Jacques.
Gilbert filled a crock and followed the host, who was astonished at so young a man allying the firmness of the people with the instinct of the aristocratic.
Chapter XXVIII.
In The Loft.