But, when I had paid for about a dozen chickens that he had killed; and had dragged him, growling and kicking, by the scruff of his neck, out of a hundred and fourteen street fights; and had had a dead cat brought round for my inspection by an irate female, who called me a murderer; and had been summoned by the man next door but one for having a ferocious dog at large, that had kept him pinned up in his own tool-shed, afraid to venture his nose outside the door for over two hours on a cold night; and had learned that the gardener, unknown to myself, had won thirty shillings by backing him to kill rats against time, then I began to think that maybe they'd let him remain on earth for a bit longer, after all.
Mais apres que j’eus remboursé la douzaine de poulets qu’il avait égorgés, apres que je l’eus tiré par la peau du cou – grognant et gigotant – de cent quatorze bagarres de rues, quand une mégere m’eut traité d’assassin en me brandissant sous le nez la dépouille de son pauvre chat, quand mon voisin m’eut poursuivi en justice pour laisser en liberté une bete féroce qui l’avait assiégé plus de deux heures durant par une nuit glaciale dans sa remise a outils (d’ou il n’osait plus sortir), et quand j’eus appris que le jardinier avait, a mon insu, gagné trente shillings en l’engageant dans des concours a tuer des rats, alors je songeai que, tout bien pesé, Montmorency avait une espérance de vie des plus normales et que le ciel risquait d’attendre encore longtemps le retour de son ange.