He may have been better placed there to catch the gleam of glee in the King's dull eye, and to give unseen a respectful nod.
"Glad to see you, my old Gamain," said Louis; "I really did not look for you--I thought you had forgotten old times."
"And that is why you have taken on a 'prentice," said Gamain. "You did right enough to have help when I was not on hand, but unfortunately an apprentice is not a master."
"How could I help it? I was assured that you did not care to come near me from fear of injuring yourself."
"Faith, it was not hard to learn at Versailles that it was not healthy to be friend of yours--as witness that brace of your Lifeguardsman whom they cut off the heads of! ay, and by the same token had the Queen's barber Leonard dress them in the latest fashion, which I saw in a saloon at Secres."
A cloud passed over the royal brow and the apprentice hung his head.
"But folks say that you are getting on nicely since you came back to town, and that you can make the Parisians do anything you like; not that it is astonishing, for the Parisians are ninnies and the Queen is such a weedler when she likes to be."
Louis made no remark, but his cheeks were colored. The young man seemed pained by the locksmith's familiarity. After wiping his forehead with a handkerchief, rather fine for a locksmith's help, he approached the King to whom he said:
"Does your Majesty allow me to tell how we have Master Gamain here and how I am in your employment?"
"That is the style! 'My dear Louis!' as long as your arm. To a fortnight's acquaintance, a workman, a 'prentice! why, what are you going to call me, who has known you these five and twenty years? who put the file in your fist? who am the master? this is the advantage of having white hands and a glib tongue."
"I will call you 'My good Gamain' if you like. I speak to the lad affectionately because I owe to him the joy of seeing my old master again: not because he speaks prettily or keeps his hands smooth, for you know I think nothing of these fine ways--but I like him for proving it was false what they said about my never seeing you any more."
"Well, it was not me that held back, but that wife of mine. She was always saying: 'Gamain, you have bad acquaintances, those who fly too high for you. It is not good to hobnob with aristocrats nowadays. We have a little property--look after it. Let us rear our young ones: and let the Dauphin learn locksmithing from others than you, if he wants to, like his father before him. There are plenty of smiths in France.'"