So thought the major-domo on his master's behalf.
His major-domo came in a second time to say that the Frenchman who had brought the letter from the countess was very anxious to see him if only for a minute, and that someone from Bazdeev's widow had called to ask Pierre to take charge of her husband's books, as she herself was leaving for the country.
No, of course... go and say I will come directly, Pierre replied to the major-domo.
In 1656, and again in 1657, she visited France, on the second occasion ordering the assassination of her major-domo Monaldischi, a crime still unexplained.
The permanent residents are generally limited to the major-domo and his family; and in the dry season labourers are hired, of any colour that can be obtained - some from the low country, others from the highlands - for three, four, or five months, who gather in and grind the cane, and plant for the harvest of the following year; but the staff of resident Indian labourers, such as exists in the farms of the sierra, cannot be kept up in the Yungas, as these half-warm valleys are called.
