"It is respecting the battles of La Vendee," said he, "that I wish to
speak to him. I believe that he saw more of them than any person now
alive."
Madame Chapeau was considering within herself whether there would be any
imprudence in confessing to the English officer the important part her
husband had played in La Vendee, when the officer's question was
answered by another person, whose head and shoulders now dimly appeared
upon the scene.
These were the head and shoulders of Chapeau's assistant, who had been
summoned from his own region by the sound of his mistress's bell; the
stairs from this subterraneous recess did not open on to any passage,
but ascended at once abruptly into the shop, so that the assistant, when
called on, found himself able to answer, and to make even a personal
appearance, as far as his head was concerned, without troubling himself
to mount the three or four last stairs. From this spot he was in the
habit of holding long conversations with his master and mistress; and
now perceiving that neither the head nor chin of the strange gentleman
were to be submitted to his skill, he arrested his steps, and astonished
the visitor by a voice which seemed to come out of the earth.
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