"
"Look out, Merle," said Gerard; "the veiled beauties have a man
accompanying them who seems wily enough to catch you in a trap."
"Who? that /incroyable/ whose little eyes are ferretting from one side
of the road to the other, as if he saw Chouans? The fellow seems to
have no legs; the moment his horse is hidden by the carriage, he looks
like a duck with its head sticking out of a pate. If that booby can
hinder me from kissing the pretty linnet--"
"'Duck'! 'linnet'! oh, my poor Merle, you have taken wings indeed! But
don't trust the duck. His green eyes are as treacherous as the eyes of
a snake, and as sly as those of a woman who forgives her husband. I
distrust the Chouans much less than I do those lawyers whose faces are
like bottles of lemonade."
"Pooh!" cried Merle, gaily. "I'll risk it--with the commandant's
permission. That woman has eyes like stars, and it's worth playing any
stakes to see them."
"Caught, poor fellow!" said Gerard to the commandant; "he is beginning
to talk nonsense!"
Hulot made a face, shrugged his shoulders, and said: "Before he
swallows the soup, I advise him to smell it."
"Bravo, Merle," said Gerard, judging by his friend's lagging step that
he meant to let the carriage overtake him. Isn't he a happy fellow? He
is the only man I know who can laugh over the death of a comrade
without being thought unfeeling.
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