midday
The proximity of a small house where the steward lived dispensed with the necessity for a lodge . Between the two pilasters , a sumptuous iron gate , like those made in Buffon 's time for the Jardin des Plantes , opened on a short paved way which led to the country road -LRB- formerly kept in order by Les Aigues and the Soulanges family -RRB- which unites Conches , Cerneux , Blangy , and Soulanges to Ville-aux-Fayes , like a wreath , for the whole road is lined with flowering hedges and little houses covered with roses and honey-suckle and other climbing plants . There , along a pretty wall which extends as far as a terrace from which the land of Les Aigues falls rapidly to the valley till it meets that of Soulanges , are the rotten posts , the old wheel , and the forked stakes which constituted the manufactory of the village rope-maker . Soon after midday , while Blondet was seating himself at table opposite the Abbe Brossette and receiving the tender expostulations of the countess , Pere Fourchon and Mouche arrived at this establishment . From that vantage-ground Pere Fourchon , under pretence of rope-making , could watch Les Aigues and see every one who went in and out . Nothing escaped him , the opening of the blinds , tete-a-tete loiterings , or the least little incidents of country life , were spied upon by the old fellow , who had set up this business within the last three years , -- a trifling circumstance which neither the masters , nor the servants , nor the keepers of Les Aigues had as yet remarked upon . `` Go round to the house by the gate of the Avonne while I put away the tackle , '' said Pere Fourchon to his attendant , `` and when you have blabbed about the thing , they 'll no doubt send after me to the Grand-I-Vert , where I am going for a drop of drink , -- for it makes one thirsty enough to wade in the water that way .