OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

244 MAINLY MAIGRET
" Yes; they took him off that evening, bracelets and all. I was at
the door, and I don't mind telling you my wife cried about it...
and I myself. And yet he wasn't a particularly good customer. I
gave him special prices ... and he hardly drank anything. ..."
They were interrupted by a sudden uproar. P'tit Louis had fallen
on the Breton, probably because he insisted on keeping him from
drinking. They were both rolling on the ground. The others were
getting out of the way.
It was Maigret who separated them by literally hauling them up,
one with each hand.
" Well... do you want to bite each other's noses off? "
The whole thing happened quickly. The Breton, who had his
hands free, drew a knife from his pocket, and the inspector saw it
just in time to kick it spinning two yards with a movement of his
heel. His boot hit the Breton on the chin, which began to bleed.
And then P'tit Louis threw himself on his companion, still in a
drunken daze, and began to cry and beg his pardon.
L£on came up to Maigret, watch in hand:
" It's closing time. Otherwise we'll have the police here. Every
evening it's the same story. Impossible to get them out. ..."
" Do they sleep on board the Ociarii "
" Yes. Except when, as happened yesterday with two of them,
they stay in the gutter. I found them there this morning when I
opened the shutters. ..."
The barmaid was collecting the glasses off the tables. The men
went out in threes and fours. Only P'tit Louis and the Breton made
no move.
" D'you want a room? " Leon asked Maigret.
" Thank you! I'm putting up at the Hotel de la Plage! "
" I say ..."
" What? "
" It's not that I want to interfere. It's none of my business. Only
we were fond of that operator. Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea
to cherchei lafemme, as they say in novels. I've heard whispers. . .."
" Had Pierre Le Clinche a mistress? "
" Him? Oh, no. . .. He was engaged to a girl in his own part of
the country, and every day he used to send a six-page letter to
her "
" Then who ... ? "
" I don't know at all. Perhaps it's more complicated than one
thinks. And then . .."