More flushed and agitated than when he had faced Jean Jacques in the flume, the master-carpenter said: "If she wants a few words-of farewell--alone with me, she must have it, M'sieu' Fille.

The other room--eh?
Outside there"-- he jerked a finger towards the street--"they won't know that you are not with us; and as for Jean Jacques, isn't it possible for a Clerk of the Court to stretch the truth a little?
Isn't the Clerk of the Court a man as well as a mummy?
I'd do as much for you, little lawyer, any time.

A word to say farewell, you understand!" He looked M.Fille squarely in the eye.
"If I had to answer M.Jean Jacques on such a matter--and so much at stake--" Masson interrupted.

"Well, if you like we'll bind your eyes and put wads in your ears, and you can stay, so that you'll have been in the room all the time, and yet have heard and seen nothing at all.

How is that, m'sieu'?
It's all right, isn't it ?" M.Fille stood petrified for a moment at the audacity of the proposition.