"
Then Mathieu also, catching sight of the scene, sternly summoned
Gregoire: "Please to place your wheel with the others. You know what I
have already said to you, so don't begin again."
It was war. Lepailleur impudently growled ignoble threats, which
fortunately were lost amid the strains of a barrel organ. And the two
families separated, going off in different directions through the growing
holiday-making crowd.
"Won't that train ever come, then?" resumed Rose, who with joyous
impatience was at every moment turning to glance at the clock of the
little railway station on the other side of the square. "We have still
ten minutes to wait: whatever shall we do?"
As it happened she had stopped in front of a hawker who stood on the
footway with a basketful of crawfish, crawling, pell-mell, at his feet.
They had certainly come from the sources of the Yeuse, three leagues
away. They were not large, but they were very tasty, for Rose herself had
occasionally caught some in the stream. And thus a greedy but also
playful fancy came to her.
"Oh, mamma!" she cried, "let us buy the whole basketful. It will be for
the feast of welcome, you see; it will be our present to the royal couple
we are awaiting.
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