The mother ceased eating to listen to him, and she sat there, with her
fork in her hand, looking at her husband and her daughter by turns, and
following every word with concentrated and silent attention, while
Adelaide remained listless, docile and stupid, with vague and wandering
eyes.

As soon as their meal was over, her mother made her put her cap on, and
they both started off to see Monsieur Cesaire Omont. He lived in a small
brick house adjoining his tenants' cottages, for he had retired, and was
living by subdividing and letting his land.

He was about fifty-five years old, and was stout, jovial and rough
mannered, as rich men often are. He laughed and shouted loud enough to
make the walls fall down, drank brandy and cider by the glassful, and
was still said to be of an amorous disposition, in spite of his age. He
liked to walk about his fields with his hands behind his back, digging
his wooden shoes into the fat soil, looking at the sprouting corn or the
flowering colza with the eye of an amateur at his ease, who likes to see
it, but does not trouble himself about it too much any longer, and they
used to say of him: "There is a Mr. Merry-man, who does not get up in a
good temper every day."

He received the two women, with his fat stomach against the table, as he
was finishing his coffee, and turning round he said: "What do you want?"

The mother was spokeswoman. "This is our girl Adelaide, and I have come
to ask you to take her as servant, as Monsieur le cure told us you
wanted one." Maitre Omont looked at the girl, and then he said roughly:
"How old is the great she-goat?" "Twenty last Michaelmas-Day, Monsieur
Omont." "That is settled, she will have fifteen francs a month and her
food. I shall expect her to-morrow, to make my soup in the morning."
And he dismissed the two women.

The next day Adelaide entered upon her duties, and began to work hard,
without saying a word, as she was in the habit of doing at home, and at
about nine o'clock, as she was scrubbing the kitchen floor, Monsieur
Omont called her: "Adelaide!" She came immediately, saying: "Here I am,
master." As soon as she was opposite him, with her red and neglected
hands, and her troubled looks, he said: "Now just listen to me, so that
there may be no mistake between us. You are my servant, but nothing
else; you understand what I mean. We shall keep our shoes apart." "Yes,
master." "Each in our own place, my girl, you in your kitchen; I in my
di