On Saturdays he repaired to look after his property in Creille .sx Perhaps , he admitted , he absented himself more than was right from his office .sx He was never in love with his profession .sx In his case , said he , it was the profession of an artiste manque an artist who had failed .sx Had he not gone through the Beaux-Arts in Paris ?sx He flickered the long ineffectual fingers of the artist who can feel but cannot execute .sx Well , there they were , the three of them at Creille .sx It would be idiotic to suppose that in their intimate association during the building of the Castello Miramare , Tombarel and Froisette did not find many unconventional opportunities of talks heart to heart .sx The devil of it was that Froisette had no dragon of a mother , not even a gorgon of an aunt , and Tombarel was a happy orphan .sx They told their love .sx They kissed and did all sorts of silly things .sx But the bullet-headed shoe-brush haired little beast of a Camille Monniot stood between them , inspiring them with the fear of some strange and unimaginable bourgeois god !sx Again , I must remind you , we are talking of France of forty years ago .sx The Code Civil gave a chance parent every father is a chance parent absolute control over his unmarried children till they reached a green old age .sx It was a perilous business to get married in France , forty years ago , without parental consent .sx The church might unite and bless them ; but the law would curse them and their offspring and the etat civil of everybody would be a hopeless muddle .sx Luckily , they were in no violent hurry .sx Froisette was only nineteen , and , loving each other idealistically , they were happy enough to await whatever happy turn might be taken by Fortune's tide .sx For instance , said Tombarel :sx " Ce cochon de Monniot was bull-necked ; he had folds of fat at the back of his collar ; he stuffed himself with fat food , Lyons sausages , truffled ducks , cotelettes de veau Rossignol in which the slab of Perigord foie gras must be twice as thick as the veal .sx And he despised our exquisite little wines of the country .sx He must drink his two bottles of heavy Burgundy a day .sx Apoplexy must surely get him .sx At least , when one is young , one is buoyed up with hope .sx " Now , this hectoring , egotistic sensualist had not long installed himself on the outskirts of Creille , before he began to make himself objectionable .sx By some means or the other bribery and corruption , said Tombarel and mind you , for all their history I have only Tombarel's word , and he disliked the man for excellent reasons he secured a seat on the Municipal Council .sx There he came into immediate conflict with Cesar Balignon , the lank village Abraham Lincoln of a Mayor .sx He belonged to the political Extreme Left and had Radico-Socialistic ideas of improving the land .sx He wanted to instal a new-fangled drainage system .sx " Imbecile !sx " cried Tombarel .sx " Not to know that if he once began to disturb the sacred filth of centuries , the whole community would have perished like flies !sx " He wanted to run the Council with the pernickety precision that governed the Board meetings of his wretched Lyons Societe Anonyme of Silk .sx He did worse .sx His malignant cunning prompted him to pay .sx for the re-leading of the roof of the little old church , which for generations had leaked comfortably on worshippers during the mountain rains .sx He advanced money to Guiol's father for the extension of his modest little draper's ten-foot-square shop under the arcades of the Place de la Mairie .sx Left to himself , he would have pulled down the three or four hundred years' old facade and erected a new gewgaw building .sx It was Tombarel who , working in secret , frustrated his vandalistic scheme .sx In those days he knew young architects who were still in the ateliers of illustrious masters .sx The word was passed from Aspirant to Master , from Master to the Ministry of Fine Arts , from the Ministry of Fine Arts , peremptorily , to the Prefect of the Alpes Maritimes , who forbade the removal of a stone from the frontage of the Place de la Mairie .sx " It was all very difficult , " said Tombarel , " seeing that I loved Froisette .sx .. Ah !sx mon cher , figurez-vous " .sx The night-shirted and leonine patriarch , a worldly Ezekiel ( I have often wondered what the hoary , white-bearded prophets , major and minor , were like when they were five-and-twenty ) , wandered off into a rhapsodic idyll of early love .sx Stolen meetings on May nights , in the dark little valley between the crest of Creille and the lower eminence of the Castello Miramare .sx The moon sailing the heavens .sx The near mountain slopes on the other side of the gorge chequered black and silver in the moonlight .sx The scent of lilac and wistaria and magnolia on the heavy air .sx " If my father found me here , he would kill me .sx " " Not he .sx " " He would send me to a convent .sx " " Bah !sx Lose his precious housekeeper and be at the mercy of a cook and a valet de chambre .sx Jamais de la vie .sx " " He would kill you , Alcide .sx " " It would take a hundred fathers to kill Alcide Tombarel .sx " So he boasted in his young strength , and Froisette thought him magnificent , as indeed he was .sx At any rate Tombarel said so , and he ought to know .sx " Ah !sx " sighed Tombarel , " I was a fine specimen of manhood in those days , with the chest of a bull and muscles like iron .sx I could have picked Monniot up by his rolls of fat with one hand and swung him about like a panier a salade .sx " All the time , of course , he was a welcome though formal visitor at the Castello Miramare .sx Once Monsieur Monniot , over coffee and cigars on the loggia , took the young man into his Machiavellian confidence .sx He was getting on in years .sx He must provide for his daughter's future .sx She would have to marry , alas !sx But whom ?sx He anticipated a cry from Tombarel , by adding quickly :sx " I am a wealthy man .sx I am ambitious .sx She must make a great marriage .sx Her dowry will be five hundred thousand francs .sx " Tombarel jumped out of his skin .sx " Mon Dieu !sx " .sx The other held up his fat hand .sx " But the man she marries must produce at least an equivalent amount .sx It is not Camille Monniot who is going to keep his daughter's husband in idleness .sx " " That is a great sum , " said Tombarel .sx In those far-off days , when a hundred francs was four pounds sterling , half a million francs meant twenty thousand pounds .sx Alcide hadn't half a million centimes .sx He felt as though he were a worm crushed beneath the heel of this colossal millionaire .sx Abjectly he reported the conversation to Froisette .sx " C'est de la blague , " she replied .sx Bluff or not , it impressed Tombarel and inhibited a growing determination to put on his yellow gloves and pay a visit of ceremony to demand in marriage the hand of Mademoiselle Solange Monniot .sx It was about the time that Monniot began to talk to Tombarel and his supporters , most of them bribed proteges , of the inefficiency of the tinsmith Balignon , Mayor of Creille .sx This ignorant peasant , a reactionary of the Second Empire , was a stumbling-block in the path of Progress .sx He was two hundred years behind the times ; antediluvian .sx It made him sick to sit at the meetings of the Municipal Council and suffer the dictatorship of so dense-brained an animal .sx Now , if he , Camille Monniot , were Mayor of Creille .sx .. That was the beginning of it all .sx As the days went by , Tombarel gathered not only from Monniot himself , but from the confidences of Froisette , that this had become an idee fixe , an overmastering passion , in the brain of Camille Monniot .sx Henceforward he appeared to devote his life to the eventual overthrow of Cesar Balignon .sx " I don't know what's the matter with him , " said Froisette , during one of the stolen meetings .sx " He no longer thinks of his food , and , even yesterday , hedrank wine from a bottle which even I , who only drink a thimbleful , knew to be corked .sx " Tombarel received the news without dismay .sx The sooner the good man could be certified as a lunatic , the better .sx To me one of the endearing qualities of the essentially Latin Tombarel is his lusty yet childlike cynicism .sx It was the Fete of Saint Go-Go .sx Many of the towns in Provence celebrate an apocryphal saint whose origin is lost in the ironic symbolism of the Middle Ages .sx Cannes goes wild every summer over the Feast of Saint Jin-Jin .sx It is the perennial jest of every parish priest , taking part in ceremonial proceedings , to say that , while honouring the saint , he has caused the Vatican archives to be searched in vain for any record of the holy man's existence .sx Saint Go-Go and Saint Jin-Jin are as Gothic as the gargoyles on churches , and sprang from the same human impulse .sx It was the feast , then , of Saint Go-Go , which , as all the world knows , is celebrated in July .sx There is no fear of rain to mar festivities .sx It was such a Fete Saint Go-Go as Creille had never seen .sx Old Guiol - father of the suspected poisoner of my friend , Tombarel had sent to Paris for a vast stock of tricolour flags and , financed by the astute Monniot , was able to sell them at four sous apiece to the populace .sx The tortuous , cool and smelly streets of Creille were ablaze with the red , white and blue .sx The arcaded Place de la Mairie , with the venerable Town Hall straggling along one side , was a blaze of glory .sx There would .sx be illuminations and a display of fireworks in the evening .sx The astute Monniot again .sx Anticipation of their new wonders gave added zest to the town's joyousness .sx Nobody worked except a few flabby waiters , hired from Nice , who strove to maintain the service at the little cafe .sx It was the Fete Saint Go-Go , and no one thought of celebrating it otherwise than after the manner of their ancestors .sx And it was their ancestors' costumes that they wore :sx men mostly in white , short-jacketed with red sashes girt around their waist and swaggering under the floppy beret such as survives as the head-dress of the Chasseurs Alpins ; the women gay in striped skirts and colourful cross-bodices and dainty frilled caps .sx Young Alcide Tombarel , through ancestry the grand seigneur of Creille , put on his heirloom of a black velvet knee-breeches suit , jacket short and open showing silk shirt with Byronic collar , tied in front by crimson strings ; a gallant to make any maiden's heart beat , even though she were not already in love with him .sx Thus attired , he attended Monsieur Camille Monniot , Conseiller Municipal , and Mademoiselle Solange Monniot on the Councillor's municipal functions .sx There was a place of honour allotted to him on the platform in front of the Town Hall .sx " But why ?sx " asked Monniot .sx " My prescriptive right , " replied Tombarel carelessly .sx Podgy little Monniot , to impress the town with a sense of his appreciation of the occasion's solemnity , wore full evening dress .sx Froisette , with the aid of a friendly female soul , had run up an enchanting Provencal costume .sx There were speeches from Balignon the Mayor , imposing in his grandfather's inordinately tall silk hat and tightly buttoned blue frock-coat and his tricolour sash , from the cure , from Monsieur Camille Monniot , to the massed picturesque populace in the little arcaded square .sx There was retirement into the Town Hall , where the Mayor offered the traditional vermouth d'honneur .sx Then , when the Conseil Municipal reappeared on the platform , came the traditional dancing around the Place de la Mairie ; dancing of the Farandole to the melancholy yet curiously inspiring music of the bands ; long drums beaten only on one end and shrill fifes .sx The July sun blazed down on the baking square ; but no one heeded .sx The circles of the Farandole pursued their monotonous yet joyous course .sx Camille Monniot , resplendent in evening dress , with a vivid green silk handkerchief spread from waistcoat opening half-way up his shirt , looked benignly on , as though he were the author and originator of the festivities .sx He patted gaunt Mayor Balignon on the shoulder .sx