"I will try, I will try, Messire."
"We shall sup together afterward, and you know that the victor will be expected to drink two bottles more than his vanquished opponent."
"Which means that I shall be carried home dead drunk, Master Benvenuto. Vive la joie! this suits me. Ah! the devil! there's Simonne waiting for me, too! Pshaw! I had to wait for her last Sunday. It's her turn to-day, so much the worse for her."
With that the two seized balls and rackets, and hied them to the garden.
XI
OWLS, MAGPIES, AND NIGHTINGALES
As this was the blessed Sabbath day, Benvenuto did nothing more than play tennis, rest after playing, and inspect his new property. But on the following day the work of moving began, and was fully completed two days later, by virtue of the assistance of his new companions. On the third day Benvenuto resumed his modelling as calmly as if nothing had happened.
When the provost realized that he was definitively vanquished, when he learned that Benvenuto's studio, tools, and workmen were actually installed at the Grand-Nesle, rage took possession of him once more, and he began to plot and plan for vengeance. He was in one of his most wrathful moments when the Vicomte de Marmagne surprised him on the morning of this same third day, Wednesday. Marmagne could not resist the longing to gratify his vanity by triumphing over the sorrows and reverses of his friends, as every man who is a coward and an idiot loves to do.
"Well!" he said, "I told you so, my dear Provost."
"Ah! is it you, Viscount? Good morning."