Francoise at that moment was setting the table.

She did not seem astonished; she contented herself with putting on an additional plate, knife and fork, but the little dimples were again seen in her cheeks, and her smile reappeared.

That morning Pere Merlier had sought out Dominique in his hut on the border of the wood.
There the two men had talked for three hours with doors and windows closed.

What was the purport of their conversation no one ever knew.
Certain it was, however, that Pere Merlier, on taking his departure, already called Dominique his son-in-law.

Without doubt the old man had found the youth he had gone to seek a worthy youth in the lazy fellow who stretched himself out upon the grass to make the girls fall in love with him.
All Rocreuse clamored.