The bourgeoisie often have expensive hobbies. Ordinary people, on the other hand, have to be economical; and what could be more economical and entertaining than gossiping? And even gossiping about the lives of the bourgeoisie they serve. This is how Josette and Germaine chatted cheerfully while knitting.

“At the Ravaudets', it's the lady who wears the pants,” Germaine observed. Josette smiled. The prosperous notary was undoubtedly the boss at his office, but he was not the boss at home...

"Speaking of Maître Ravaudet and pants... Oh no, no, you can't say that.

— Josette... Don't be so secretive. "

Josette sometimes liked to make her friends beg a little before going further into gossips, under the pretext of preserving decency.

"If you insist. Then you know that when I was a young girl, I was a maid for his parents. His mother was quite a character... One day I was supposed to go clean his room and I heard her giving him a dressing down. He was a student in the city, he was back for the university holidays, and she was criticizing him for not working hard enough on his law studies. “You're costing us a fortune! You're ruining our hopes! You lazy good-for-nothing!” and all that jazz. I left. When I couldn't hear her yelling anymore, I came back... I went through the small door in the service corridor that led to the bathroom, and that's when I realized that her mother hadn't actually left; I could hear little noises. The door between the bedroom and the bathroom was ajar... And then I saw... oh Germaine...

— Go on, tell us, tell us.

— Mrs. Ravaudet was whipping her son!

— Whipping him?

— Yes! He was bent over her desk, his pants around his knees, his butt bare, and she was flogging his behind with a martinet!

— Mr. Ravaudet whipped like a little boy?

— Yes! He must have been about 19? And his butt was already pink!

— And what did you do then?

— I didn't want Mrs. Ravaudet to know I was there, so I went back outside and kept listening. She gave him a real beating, he was whimpering “Mommy, Mommy, I'll work” when she stopped. "

The two gossips agreed that if a good flogging on the derrière had enabled him to become a successful notary, then it was probably a good thing. Even if it had taken several spankings.

Then Josette had an idea. "Do you think his wife... do you think she spanks him?

— At his age?

— You're the one who told me she wore the pants."

The thought of the notable being punished by his strong-willed wife cheered up the two gossips.