"Charming! Charming! We do not know where we are going. I have always longed for an expedition of that sort."
"You forget, perhaps," said she, gravely, "that the end of it may be death."
"Better still! To be buried, in Nubia, instead of that commonplace
Père-la-Chaise! My happiness is complete!"
The Baroness could not help laughing, for this genuine gaiety disarmed her.
As for M. Périères, who, not content with his appointment as cashier, had also constituted himself Historian to the Expedition, he was incessantly making notes, and, as he wrote, kept murmuring to himself disjointed phrases such as—"Cloth," "Brass-wire," "Cairo," "Nubia," "We are buried in the desert."
"May I ask whether you are already practising the African dialect?" said M. de Morin, in astonishment at this telegraphic style of speech.
"Yes," said the man of letters, "I am getting into some of their ways."
"Then the sooner you get out of them the better," said Madame de Guéran. "These African tribes are not what we conceited Europeans often take them for. Their languages are very beautiful, and they have no patois. I beg of you not to give credence to all the absurdities which have been uttered on these subjects. You will meet with a number of very intelligent tribes. They are merely behind the age; and Livingstone, who had studied them thoroughly, stated once in my presence that Europe, a century ago, was not one whit more enlightened than the Africa of the present day. But let us turn our attention once more to the preparations for our departure. You must provide the best possible arms, on the most approved principles, but perfectly plain. Amongst certain of the tribes it is imprudent to go about with too highly-finished and elaborate weapons, for they merely serve to excite the cupidity of some Chief, who, in order to possess himself of them, will not shrink from assassination. You must also lay in a stock of second-hand pistols, revolvers, carbines, swords, sabres, and such like things, to be offered to those Chiefs whose good-will we wish to secure."
"An arsenal, upon my word—a regular arsenal!" exclaimed M. de Morin.
"Yes, in certain parts of central Africa you can only get on by taking a gift in your hand."