She had to
change everything. Theresa provided her with what was necessary, and I
prevailed upon her to forget her dignity and partake of a rustic
coalition, with which she seemed highly satisfied. It was late, and
her stay was short; but the interview was so mirthful that it
pleased her, and she seemed disposed to return. She did not however
put this project into execution until the next year: but, alas! the
delay was not favorable to me in anything.
I passed the autumn in an employment no person would suspect me of
undertaking: this was guarding the fruit of M. d'Epinay. The Hermitage
was the reservoir of the waters of the park of the Chevrette; there
was a garden walled round and planted with espaliers and other
trees, which produced M. d'Epinay more fruit than his kitchen-garden
at the Chevrette, although three-fourths of it were stolen from him.
That I might not be a guest entirely useless, I took upon myself the
direction of the garden and the inspection of the conduct of the
gardener. Everything went on well until the fruit season, but as
this became ripe, I observed that it disappeared without knowing in
what manner it was disposed of. The gardener assured me it was the
dormice which ate it all. I destroyed a great number of these animals,
notwithstanding which the fruit still diminished. I watched the
gardener's motions so narrowly, that I found he was the great
dormouse. He lodged at Montmorency, whence he came in the night with
his wife and children to take away the fruit he had concealed in the
daytime, and which he sold in the market at Paris as publicly as if he
had brought it from a garden of his own.
Pages:
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630