"I
will pay you well."
But on hearing the word "pay," which would have made his eyes gleam with
delight a week before, Chupin flew into a furious passion.
"So it was to tempt me again that you summoned me here!" he exclaimed.
"You would do better to leave me quietly at my inn."
"What do you mean, fool?"
But Chupin did not even hear this interruption, and, with increasing
fury, he continued:
"They told me that, by betraying Lacheneur, I should be doing my duty
and serving the King. I betrayed him, and now I am treated as if I had
committed the worst of crimes. Formerly, when I lived by stealing and
poaching, they despised me, perhaps; but they did not shun me as they
did the pestilence. They called me rascal, robber, and the like; but
they would drink with me all the same. To-day I have twenty thousand
francs, and I am treated as if I were a venomous beast. If I approach a
man, he draws back; if I enter a room, those who are there leave it."
The recollection of the insults he had received made him more and more
frantic with rage.
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