Page:A chambermaid's diary.djvu/379

Rh them, with a mechanical and simultaneous movement, folded their hands over their stomachs.

"Well," asked the countess, "you have seen everything?"

"Madame the Countess is very good," answered the man. "It is very grand and very beautiful. Oh! it is a superb estate. There must be plenty of work, indeed!"

"And I am very exacting, I warn you,—very just, but very exacting. I love to have everything perfectly kept. And flowers, flowers, flowers, always and everywhere. However, you have two assistants in summer, and one in winter. That is sufficient."

"Oh!" replied the man, «« the work does not worry me; the more there is, the better I like it.

I love my calling, and I know it thoroughly,—trees, early vegetables, mosaics, and everything. As for flowers, with good arms, taste, water, good straw coverings, and—saving your presence, Madame the Countess—an abundance of manure, one can have as many as one wants."

After a pause, he continued:

"My wife, too, is very active, very skilful, and a good manager. She does not look strong, but she is courageous, and never sick, and nobody understands animals as she does. In the place where we last worked there were three cows and two hundred hens."