“And how much do you want for it?” she asked presently, in a reluctant tone.

“Fifteen francs,” replied La Normande.

At this the servant hastily laid the brill on the stall again, and seemed anxious to hurry away, but the other detained her.  “Wait a moment,” said she.  “What do you offer?”

“No, no, I can’t take it.  It is much too dear.”

“Come, now, make me an offer.”

“Well, will you take eight francs?”

Old Madame Mehudin, who was there, suddenly seemed to wake up, and broke out into a contemptuous laugh.  Did people think that she and her daughter stole the fish they sold?  “Eight francs for a brill that size!” she exclaimed.  “You’ll be wanting one for nothing next, to use as a cooling plaster!”

Meantime La Normande turned her head away, as though greatly offended.  However, the servant came back twice and offered nine francs; and finally she increased her bid to ten.

“All right, come on, give me your money!” cried the fish-girl, seeing that the woman was now really going away.

The servant took her stand in front of the stall and entered into a friendly gossip with old Madame Mehudin.  Madame Taboureau, she said, was so exacting!  She had got some people coming to dinner that evening, some cousins from Blois a notary and his wife.  Madame Taboureau’s family, she added, was a very respectable one, and she herself, although only a baker, had received an excellent education.

“You’ll clean it nicely for me, won’t you?” added the woman, pausing in her chatter.

With a jerk of her finger La Normande had removed the fish’s entrails and tossed them into a pail.  Then she slipped a corner of her apron under its gills to wipe away a few grains of sand.  “There, my dear,” she said, putting the fish into the servant’s basket, “you’ll come back to thank me.”

Certainly the servant did come back a quarter of an hour afterwards, but it was with a flushed, red face.  She had been crying, and her little body was trembling all over with anger.  Tossing the brill on to the marble slab, she pointed to a broad gash in its belly that reached the bone.  Then a flood of broken words burst from her throat, which was still contracted by sobbing:  “Madame Taboureau won’t have it.  She says she couldn’t put it on her table.  She told me, too, that I was an idiot, and let myself be cheated by anyone.  You can see for yourself that the fish is spoilt.  I never thought of turning it round; I quite trusted you.  Give me my ten francs back.”

“You should look at what you buy,” the handsome Norman calmly observed.

And then, as the servant was just raising her voice again, old Madame Mehudin got up.  “Just you shut up!” she cried.  “We’re not going to take back a fish that’s been knocking about in other people’s houses.  How do we know that you didn’t let it fall and damage it yourself?”

“I!  I damage it!” The little servant was choking with indignation.  “Ah! you’re a couple of thieves!” she cried, sobbing bitterly.  “Yes, a couple of thieves!  Madame Taboureau herself told me so!”