He was infinitely relieved, however, to find that the lord of the Manor Cartier seemed only to be grateful that Sebastian Dolores did not return, and nodded emphatically when M.Fille remarked that perhaps it would be just as well if he never did return.
As M.Fille sat with his host at the table in the sunset light, Jean Jacques seemed quieter and steadier of body and mind than he had been for a long, long time.

He even drank three glasses of the cordial which Mere Langlois had left for him, with the idea that it might comfort him when he got the bad news about Sebastian Dolores; and parting with M.
Fille at the door, he waved a hand and said: "Well, good-night, master of the laws.

Safe journey! I'm off to bed, and I'll sleep without rocking, that's very sure and sweet." He stood and waved his hand several times to M.Fille--till he was out of sight indeed; and the Clerk of the Court smiled to himself long afterwards, recalling Jean Jacques' cheerful face as he had seen it at their parting in the gathering dusk.

As for Jean Jacques, when he locked up the house at ten o'clock, with Dolores still absent, he had the air of a man from whose shoulders great weights had fallen.
"Now I've shut the door on him, it'll stay shut," he said firmly.

"Let him go back to work.