“And they couldn’t find out where he got the watch?” interrupted Tante Modeste impatiently.
“No, they couldn’t prove that it was stolen. However, the Recorder gave him thirty days in the parish prison as a suspicious character.”
“They ought not to have let him off so easily,” said Tante Modeste decidedly.
“But you know they couldn’t prove anything,” continued Paichoux, “and the fellow looked blue at the prospect of thirty days. I guess he felt that he was getting it pretty heavy. However, he put on lots of brass and began talking and laughing with some flashy-looking fellows who gathered around him. They saw the watch was valuable, and that there was a chance for a bargain, and one of them made him an offer of fifty dollars for it. ‘Do you think I’m from the West?’ he asked, with a grin, and shoved it back into his pocket! ‘I’m pretty hard up, I need the cash badly; but I can’t give you this ticker, as much as I love you.’ Then another fellow offered him sixty, and he shook his head. ‘No, no, that’s nowhere near the figure.’
“‘Let me look at the watch,’ I said, sauntering up. ‘If it’s a good watch I’ll make you an offer.’ I spoke as indifferently as possible, because I didn’t want him to think I was anxious, and I wasn’t quite sure whether he knew me or not. As he handed me the watch he eyed me impudently, but I saw that he was nervous and shaky. ‘It’s a good watch,’ I said after I examined it closely; ‘a very good watch, and I’ll give you seventy-five.’
“‘No, you don’t, old hayseed; hand it here.’ I was so taken aback at his calling me hayseed—you see, Modeste, I had on my blouse,” and Paichoux looked a little guilty while referring to his toilet.
“Well papa, haven’t I told you not to go uptown in your blouse?” said Tante Modeste sharply. “I should think now, for Marie’s sake, that you would wear a coat; the Guiots all wear coats.”
“Oh, never mind that. I don’t. I’m an honest man, and I can afford to wear a blouse anywhere. I didn’t take any notice of his impudence, but I offered him a hundred. You see I happened to have the money with me. I was on my way to pay Lenotre for those last Jerseys I bought from him, so I took my wallet out and began counting the bills. That brought him; the fellow needed the money, and he wanted to get rid of the watch. If I hadn’t thought that there was something crooked about it, my conscience wouldn’t have let me take such a valuable thing for such a price, but I considered the child. I thought it might be all the proof that we would ever have if anything came up, and in any case it’s money well invested for her.”
“You did right to buy it, Paichoux. It’s a good deal of money for a watch, especially just now, when we have to get so much for Marie; but if we can do anything for that darling by having it, I don’t mind.” And Tante Modeste sat for some time looking intently at the beautiful, sparkling object that lay on her white apron.
“I wish it could speak,” she said at length; “I wish it could speak.”