The Works of Alphonse Daudet Volume 9; Numa Roumestan, to Which Is Added Rose and Ninette Tr. By Katharine P. Wormeley

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 Excerpt: ...his most serious air, suggested to him to have a crank attached to his tabor. "A crank attached to my tabor?--for what purpose?" "Why, my dear fellow, so as to use it as a box iox plaisirs (cakes) while you are out of work." The next time Valmajour came to see Roumestan he was received by Rochemaure. The viscount raised his head of hair frizzed with hot irons from the dusty ledger over which he was bending and in his conscientious manner asked to have the mechanism of the fife explained to him, took notes, tried to understand and said finally that he was not there for art matters, but more especially for religious questions. After that the unhappy peasant never could find any one--they had all betaken themselves to that inaccessible retreat where His Excellency had hidden himself. Still he did not lose calmness or heart and always responded to the evasive answers and shrugging shoulders of the attendants with the surprised but steady look and shrewd half-smile peculiar to the Provencal. "All right, I will come again." And he did come again. But for his high gaiters and the tabor hanging on his arm, he might have been taken for an employee of the house, he came so regularly. But each time he came it was harder than the last. Now the mere sight of the great arched door made his heart beat. Beyond the arch was the old Hdtel Augereau with its large courtyard where they were already stacking wood for the winter and the double staircase so hard to ascend under the mocking gaze of the servants. Everything combined to harass him--the silver chains of the porters, the gold-laced caps, the endless gorgeous things that made him feel the distance that separated him from his patron. But he dreaded more than all this the dreadful scenes that...