Guy de Maupassant complete short stories volume 2 - Penn State ...

“‘She also left her old horse and two dogs. Don’t you need
them?’
“He stared at me surprised: ‘Well, no! Really, what would I
do with them?’
“‘Dispose of them as you like.’
“He laughed and held out his hand to me. I shook it. What
could I do? The doctor and the druggist in a country village
must not be at enmity. I have kept the dogs. The priest took
the old horse. The wagon is useful to Chouquet, and with the
money he has bought railroad stock. That is the only deep,
sincere love that I have ever known in all my life.”
The doctor looked up. The marquise, whose eyes were full of
tears, sighed and said:
“There is no denying the fact, only women know how to
love.”
Guy de Maupassant
287
PIERROT
PIERROT
Mme. Lefevre was a country dame, a widow, one of these half
peasants, with ribbons and bonnets with trimming on them,
one of those persons who clipped her words and put on great
airs in public, concealing the soul of a pretentious animal beneath
a comical and bedizened exterior, just as the countryfolks
hide their coarse red hands in ecru silk gloves.
She had a servant, a good simple peasant, called Rose.
The two women lived in a little house with green shutters by
the side of the high road in Normandy, in the centre of the
country of Caux. As they had a narrow strip of garden in front
of the house, they grew some vegetables.
One night someone stole twelve onions. As soon as Rose
became aware of the theft, she ran to tell madame, who came
downstairs in her woolen petticoat. It was a shame and a disgrace!
They had robbed her, Mme. Lefevre! As there were
thieves in the country, they might come back.
And the two frightened women examined the foot tracks,
talking, and supposing all sorts of things.
“See, they went that way! They stepped on the wall, they