They began to talk about her and to tease-her about
her lover. They asked her whether he was tall,
handsome and rich. When was the wedding to be
and the christening? And often she ran away to
cry by herself, for these questions seemed to hurt
her like the prick of a pin; and, in order to forget
their jokes, she began to work still more energetically,
and, still thinking of her child, she sought some
way of saving up money for it, and determined to work
so that her master would be obliged to raise her wages.
By degrees she almost monopolized the work and persuaded
him to get rid of one servant girl, who had become
useless since she had taken to working like two; she
economized in the bread, oil and candles; in the corn,
which they gave to the chickens too extravagantly,
and in the fodder for the horses and cattle, which
was rather wasted. She was as miserly about her
master’s money as if it had been her own; and,
by dint of making good bargains, of getting high prices
for all their produce, and by baffling the peasants’
tricks when they offered anything for sale, he, at
last, entrusted her with buying and selling everything,
with the direction of all the laborers, and with the
purchase of provisions necessary for the household;
so that, in a short time, she became. indispensable
to him. She kept such a strict eye on everything
about her that, under her direction, the farm prospered
wonderfully, and for five miles around people talked
of “Master Vallin’s servant,” and
the farmer himself said everywhere: “That
girl is worth more than her weight in gold.”
But time passed by, and her wages remained the same.
Her hard work was accepted as something that was due
from every good servant, and as a mere token of good
will; and she began to think rather bitterly that if
the farmer could put fifty or a hundred crowns extra
into the bank every month, thanks to her, she was
still only earning her two hundred francs a year,
neither more nor less; and so she made up her mind
to ask for an increase of wages. She went to
see the schoolmaster three times about it, but when
she got there, she spoke about something else.
She felt a kind of modesty in asking for money, as
if it were something disgraceful; but, at last, one
day, when the farmer was having breakfast by himself
in the kitchen, she said to him, with some embarrassment,
that she wished to speak to him particularly.
He raised his head in surprise, with both his hands
on the table, holding his knife, with its point in
the air, in one, and a piece of bread in the other,
and he looked fixedly at, the girl, who felt uncomfortable
under his gaze, but asked for a week’s holiday,
so that she might get away, as she was not very well.
He acceded to her request immediately, and then added,
in some embarrassment himself:
“When you come back, I shall have something
to say to you myself.”
