It was already rolling on again when they
recognized the Lepailleurs and their son Antonin in the very compartment
where they were seated.
Seeing the Froments thus together in full dress, the miller imagined that
they were going to a wedding, and when he learnt that they had a visit of
condolence to make, he exclaimed: "Oh! so it's just the contrary. But no
matter, it's an outing, a little diversion nevertheless."
Since Mathieu's victory, since the whole of the estate of Chantebled had
been conquered and fertilized, Lepailleur had shown some respect for his
bourgeois rival. Nevertheless, although he could not deny the results
hitherto obtained, he did not altogether surrender, but continued
sneering, as if he expected that some rending of heaven or earth would
take place to prove him in the right. He would not confess that he had
made a mistake; he repeated that he knew the truth, and that folks would
some day see plainly enough that a peasant's calling was the very worst
calling there could be, since the dirty land had gone bankrupt and would
yield nothing more. Besides, he held his revenge--that enclosure which he
left barren, uncultivated, by way of protest against the adjoining estate
which it intersected.
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