"_Holla! Aubergiste! Garçon!_" cried the Norman, "_Holla!_"
But no one came; and on repeating the summons, the sweet voice of the dame of the house was all that could be heard, screaming forth a variety of tender epithets, applicable to the _garçon d'écurie_, and intended to stimulate him to come forth and take charge of the strangers' horses. "Don't you know, _Lambin_," cried she, "that that hog your master is lying up-stairs dying for no one knows what? And am I to go out, _Maraud_, and take people's horses with my hands all over grease, while you stand l--s--ng yourself there? _Cochon!_ if you do not go, I'll throw this pot-lid at you." And immediately a tremendous rattle on the boards at the farther side of the stable, announced that she had been as good as her word.
This seemed the only effectual method of arousing the occult sensibilities of the _garçon d'écurie_, who listened unconcerned to her gentler solicitations, but, yielding to the more potent application of the pot-lid, came forth and took the bridle of the horses, while our Norman lifted his lady to the ground.
The sight of such goodly limbs as those possessed by Monsieur Marteville, but more especially the blue velvet pourpoint to which we have formerly alluded, and which he wore on the present occasion, did not fail to produce the most favourable impression on the mind of the landlady; and, bustling about with the activity of a grasshopper, she prepared to serve the athletic cavalier and his pretty lady to the best cheer of the _auberge_.
"Would Madame choose some stewed escargots _pour se restaurer_? Would Monsieur take _un coup de vin_ before dinner to wash the dust out of his mouth? Would Madame step up-stairs to repose herself? Would Monsieur take a _gouter_?" These and a thousand other civil proffers the hostess showered upon the Norman and Louise, some of which were accepted, some declined; but the principal thing on which the Norman seemed to set his heart was the speedy preparation of dinner, which he ordered with the true galloping profusion of a beggar on horseback, demanding _the best of every thing_. While this was in progress, he forgot not the principal object of his journey, but began with some circumlocution to draw the hostess towards the subject of Fontrailles' visit to Mesnil.