e, a fat woman who was doing embroidery, was
behind him.

"When she saw us take up our position close to their place, she
murmured: 'I suppose there are no other places on the river!' And my
wife, who was furious, replied: 'People who know how to behave, make
inquiries about the habits of the neighborhood before occupying reserved
spots.'

"As I did not want a fuss, I said to her: 'Hold your tongue, Melie. Let
them go on, let them go on; we shall see.'

"Well, we had fastened _Delila_ under the willow trees, and had landed
and were fishing side by side, Melie and I, close to the two others; but
here, Monsieur, I must enter into details.

"We had only been there about five minutes when our male neighbor's
float began to go down two or three times, and then he pulled out a chub
as thick as my thigh, rather less, perhaps, but nearly as big! My heart
beat, and the perspiration stood on my forehead, and Melie said to me:
'Well, you sot, did you see that?'

"Just then, Monsieur Bru, the grocer of Poissy, who is fond of gudgeon
fishing, passed in a boat, and called out to me; 'So somebody has taken
your usual place, Monsieur Renard?' And I replied: 'Yes, Monsieur Bru,
there are some people in this world who do not know the usages of common
politeness.'

"The little man in linen pretended not to hear, nor his fat lump of a
wife, either."

Here the President interrupted him a second time: "Take care, you are
insulting the widow, Madame Flameche, who is present."

Renard made his excuses: "I beg your pardon, I beg pardon, my anger
carried me away. Well, not a quarter of an hour had passed when the
little man caught another chub and another almost immediately, and
another five minutes later.

"The tears were in my eyes, and then I knew that Madame Renard was
boiling with rage, for she kept on nagging at me: 'Oh! how horrid! Don't
you see that he is robbing you of your fish? Do you think that you will
catch anything? Not even a frog, nothing whatever. Why my hands are
burning, just to think of it.'

"But I said to myself: 'Let us wait until twelve o'clock. Then this
poaching fellow will go to lunch, and I shall get my place again.' As
for me, Monsieur le President, I lunch on the spot every Sunday; we
bring our provisions in _Delila_. But there! At twelve o'clock, the
wretch produced a fowl out of a newspaper, and while he was eating,
actually he caught another chub!

"Melie and I had a morsel also, just a thumb-piec