The stranger raised his head, gazed earnestly at her, and exclaimed:
"Why, this is most extraordinary! I had not noticed it before so strongly as I do now!"
"Nothing; oh! nothing. It is the effect of my recollections, no doubt. What in the deuce set me to thinking about all that? No, henceforth there is but a single sentiment that can revive my heart; but I feel that that sentiment may still afford me most delicious enjoyment."
Once more the stranger's eyes gleamed; they seemed alight with savage joy. Isaure moved away from him, and quickly resumed her former seat, while her hand rested on Vaillant's neck.
"My child," continued the vagabond, after drinking a glass of wine, "I was saying that the two young men who come to see you so often are in love with you. There is no harm in that, but you must realize that it is not to see this valley or to gaze into the lovely eyes of your goats, that these two young men from Paris rise so early in the morning! But I have reasons of my own for being curious to know which of the two you prefer--unless indeed you love them both, for such things have been seen! But no, no; I think that you are not sufficiently advanced for that. Come, speak, answer."
Isaure rose with dignity; she no longer trembled, for she felt offended; and looking fixedly at the man whom she had received as her guest, she answered:
"Your questions surprise me, monsieur! Who, pray, has employed you to ask them?"
"Who? Morbleu! I myself, who ask them; I, who question you! Is there any need of making so much fuss about saying: 'I love this one better than that one?'"
"No one ever spoke to me so, monsieur, and when my dear mother was alive----"
"I am not talking about your mother. If she were here you probably would not receive visits from young men every morning. I see that you make the most of your liberty; don't take so much pains to play the prude! Grimaces do not succeed with me. Come, sacrebleu! answer me!"
The stranger rose abruptly and walked toward Isaure. She, yielding to a thrill of fear caused by his approach, stepped back with a cry of alarm. Instantly Vaillant, thinking that his mistress was menaced, sprang to his feet, and with the rapidity of a lightning flash leaped upon the stranger and seized his leg with his teeth.