Page:The Garden of Romance - 1897.djvu/38

26 we still remained very much astonished at his history. We cast our eyes towards the barber, and told him that he had done wrong—if what we had just heard was true. "Gentlemen," answered he, raising his head, which he had till now kept towards the ground, "the silence which I have imposed upon myself while this young man was telling you his story ought to prove to you that he has advanced nothing that was not the fact; notwithstanding, however, all that he has told you, I still maintain that I ought to have done what I did, and I leave you yourselves to judge of it. Was he not thrown into a situation of great danger, and, without my assistance, would he so fortunately have escaped from it? He may, indeed, think himself very happy to have got free from it with only a lame leg. Was I not exposed to a much greater danger, in order to get him from a house where I thought he was so ill-treated? Has he, then, reason to complain of me, and to attack me with so many injurious reproaches? You see what we get by serving ungrateful people. He accuses me of being a chatterer; it is mere calumny. Of seven brothers, of whom our family consists, I am the very one who speaks least, and yet who possesses the most wit. In order to convince you of it, gentlemen, I have only to relate their story and my own to you. I entreat you to favour me with your attention."

So soon as the barber had spoken," said the tailor, we plainly perceived the young man was not wrong in accusing him of being a great chatterer. We nevertheless wished that he should remain with us, and partake of the feast which the master of the house had