The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-07
I shook nv head.

L
Has not Gringuet told your he re-
peated reddening with anger; and this
time speaking, on compulsion, so loud
ly that the peasants could hear him.
h 1 answered him in the same tone.
Yes l said roundly. He has told
me, Of course, that every year you
give him 200 livres TO omit your name. "
He glanced behind him with an oath.
Man are you mad?" he gasped, his
jaw falling. They will hear you
Yes L said loudly, 4 mean them
to hear me-
[ do not know what ne thought of
this-perhaps that I was mad-but he
staggered back from me and looked
wildly round. Finding everyone laugh
ing, he looked again at me, but still
failed to understand; on which, with
another oath, he turned on his heel,
and, forcing his way through the grin
ming crowd, was out Of sight in a mo-
ment
1 was about to return to my seat
when a pursy, pale-faced man, with
small eyes and a heavy jOWl, whom 1
had before noticed, pushed his way
through the line, and came TO me.
Though his neighbors were all laugh
ing, he was sober, and in moment L
understood why.
II am very deaf he said in a whis-
per- ''My name, monsieur, is Philip
pom. 1 am "a"
l made a sign to him that I could
not hear.
Il am the silk merchant" he contin-
ued, pretty audibly, but with a. con-
spicuous glance behind him. Prob
ably you have"
Again I signed to him that I could
not hear.
You have heard of me-"
''F'rom NJ. Gringuet?" L said, very
loudly.
for aware that deaf persons cannot
hear their own voices and are seldom
able to judge how loudly they are
speaking, 1 had led him to this. And
1 suppose that you will do as he dld?"
"How?" L asked. I'm what way?'
He touched his pocket with steal
thy gesture, unseen by the people be-
hind him.
Again made a sign as if I could not
.STake the usual little gift?" he said,
finding himself compelled to speak.
Il cannot hear a word 1 beloved.
By this time the crowd were shaking
with laughter.
Accept the usual gift?" he said, his
fat, pale face perspiring, and his little
pigs eyes regarding me balefully.
Auu 4Sl SOU pay O4AO 49, 49,
said.
Yes" he answered.
But this, and the simplicity with
which he said it, drew so loud a
roar of laughter from the crowd as
penetrated even to his dulled senses.
Turning abruptly, as if a bee had
stung him, he found the place con-
vulsed with merriment; and perceiving
in an instant that 1 had played upon
him. though he could not understand
how or why, he glared about him
moment, muttered something which 1
could not catch, and staggered away
with the gait of a drunken man.
After this it was useless to suppose
that 1 could amuse myself with others.
The crowd, which had never dreamed
of such tax collector and could
scarcely believe either eyes or ears,
hesitated to come forward even to pay,
and 1 was considering what 1 should do
next, when a commotiOn in one corner
of the square drew my eyes to that
quarter. looked and saw at first only
Curtin. Then. the crowd dividing and
making way for him, 1 perceived that
he had the real Gringuet with him
Gringuet, who rode through the mar
ket with an air of grim majesty, with
one foot in a huge slipper and eyes
glaring with ill-temper
Doubtless Curtin, going to him at
the chance of hearing something of
the rogue who had cheated him, had
apprised the taX-collector of the whole