At first you were almost always thinking of her
and what a fine woman she was, and because everyone admired her, you
played the peacock, too. I am not the only peacock. You are a good man
--no one ever said anything against your character. But always, always,
you think most of yourself. It is everywhere you go as if you say, 'Look
out. I am coming. I am Jean Jacques Barbille.
"'Make way for Jean Jacques. I am from the Manor Cartier. You have heard
of me.' . . . That is the way you say things in your mind. But all
the time the people say, 'That is Jean Jacques Barbille, but you should
see his wife. She is a wonder. She is at home at the Manor with the
cows and the geese. Jean Jacques travels alone through the parish to
Quebec, to Three Rivers, to Tadousac, to the great exhibition at
Montreal, but madame, she stays at home. M'sieu' Jean Jacques is nothing
beside her'--that is what the people say. They admire you for your
brains, but they would have fallen down before your wife, if you had
given her half a chance."
"Ah, that's bosh--what do you know!" exclaimed Jean Jacques fiercely,
but he was fascinated too by the argument of the man whose life he was
going to take.
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