curtly, though I could see it nearly broke his heart, and he followed me to the door with a hang-dog expression; but as my foot was on the threshold, something came over me; I put my arm around his old neck and embraced him; he did the same to me, and there we stood without a word for a minute or two.
At last he said timidly, "Colas, I could let you have a little."
"Say no more about it," I answered, for I am an obstinate devil.
"Well," he said, "you will at least stay to luncheon? "
So we sat down and ate heartily enough, but nothing would have induced me to borrow of him now; I am made like that, and if I suffered for it this time, why so of course did he.
The question for me now was how to rebuild my house without money or workmen, — but when I get an idea in my head!
I ruminated over it as I walked back to Clamecy, and the first thing I did was to go over the ruins of my house, carefully sorting out everything that might be of use, from the half-burnt beams to the rusty hinges and black tottering walls.
One day I stole off to Chevroches to see what I could find in the quarries among the great stone
