And when Angele returned, she said to him, in her drawling voice: "Your
mother expects you; she is not angry at all, she seems rather to be
making fun of you. She told me several times that you could just put
your sling back in your pocket."
Aristide felt terribly vexed. However, he ran to the Rue de la Banne,
prepared to make the most humble submission. His mother was content
to receive him with scornful laughter. "Ah! my poor fellow," said she,
"you're certainly not very shrewd."
"But what can one do in a hole like Plassans!" he angrily retorted. "On
my word of honour, I am becoming a fool here. No news, and everybody
shivering! That's what it is to be shut up in these villainous ramparts.
Ah! If I had only been able to follow Eugene to Paris!"
Then, seeing that his mother was still smiling, he added bitterly:
"You haven't been very kind to me, mother. I know many things, I do. My
brother kept you informed of what was going on, and you have never given
me the faintest hint that might have been useful to me."
"You know that, do you?" exclaimed Felicite, becoming serious and
distrustful. "Well, you're not so foolish as I thought, then. Do you
open letters like some one of my acquaintance?"
"No; but I listen at doors," Aristide replied, with great assurance.
This frankness did not displease the old woman. She began to smile
again, and asked more softly: "Well, then, you blockhead, how is it you
didn't rally to us sooner?"
"Ah! that's where it is," the young man said, with some embarrassment.
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