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MONSIEUR DUMAS AND HIS BEASTS 103
had a veal cutlet in his mouth, which he had just taken out of the frying-pan.
' Monsieur Dumas!' cried the maid, ' Monsieur Dumas ! stop your dog!'
We tried; but Pritchard passed between Michel and me like a flash of lightning.
' It seems,' said Michel, ' that he likes his veal underdone.'
' My good woman,' I said to the cook, who was still pursuing Pritchard, ' I fear that you are losing time, and that you will never see your cutlet again.'
' Well, then, let me tell you, sir, that you have no right to keep and feed a thief like that.'
' It is you, my good woman, who are feeding him today, not I.'
' Me!' said the cook, ' it's — it's M. Correge. And what will M. Correge say, I should like to know?'
' He will say, like Michel, that it seems Pritchard likes his veal underdone.'
' Well, but he'll not be pleased — he will think it's my fault.'
' Never mind, I will invite your master to luncheon with me.'
' All the same, if your dog goes on like that, he will come to a bad end. That is all I have to say — he will come to a bad end.' And she stretched out her broom in an attitude of malediction towards the spot where Pritchard had disappeared.
We three stood looking at one another. ' Well,' said I, ' wre have lost Pritchard.'
' We'll soon find him,' said Michel.
We therefore set off to find Pritchard, whistling and calling to him, as we walked on towards Vatrin's shooting ground. This search lasted for a good half-hour, Pritchard not taking the slightest notice of our appeals. At last Michel stopped.
' Sir,' he said, ' look there ! Just come and look.' |
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