There, blush if you can,
and you had better take the road of the _affronteux_[2] when you come to
our town."
He picked up the farmer's holly staff, broke it across his knee to show
the strength of his wrists, and threw the pieces away with a
contemptuous gesture.
Then, taking his son's hand in one of his, and little Marie's in the
other, he walked away, trembling with indignation.
XV
THE RETURN TO THE FARM
Within a quarter of an hour they had crossed the moors. They trotted
along the high-road, and Grise neighed at every familiar object.
Petit-Pierre told his father what had taken place so far as he had been
able to understand it.
"When we got there," he said, "_that man_ came and talked to _my Marie_
in the sheepfold, where we went first to see the fine sheep. I'd got up
into the crib to play, and _that man_ didn't see me. Then he said
good-day to my Marie and then he kissed her."
"You let him kiss you, Marie?" said Germain, trembling with anger.
"I thought it was a compliment, a custom of the place for new arrivals,
just as grandma, at your house, kisses the girls who take service with
her, to show that she adopts them and will be like a mother to them."
"And then," continued Petit-Pierre, who was very proud to have a story
to tell, "_that man_ said something naughty, something you told me not
to say and not to remember: so I forgot it right away.
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