“‘Yes,’ said I, ‘I have been on the road since four o’clock.’
“‘And how are the roads?’ said another. ‘Very bad,’ said I, ‘the first few stages from Lyons, afterwards much better.’ This was said at a venture, as I began to be ashamed of being always asleep before my fellow-travellers. They did not seem, however, to understand me perfectly; and one old fellow putting down his spectacles from his forehead, leaned over and said: ‘And where, may I ask, has Monsieur come from this morning?’
“‘From Lyons,’ said I, with the proud air of a man who has done a stout feat, and is not ashamed of the exploit.
“‘From Lyons!’ said one. ‘From Lyons!’ cried another. ‘From Lyons!’ repeated a third.
“‘Yes,’ said I; ‘what the devil is so strange in it; travelling is so quick now-a-days, one thinks nothing of twenty leagues before dinner.’
“The infernal shout of laughing that followed my explanation is still in my ears; from one end of the table to the other there was one continued ha, ha, ha—from the greasy host to the little hunchbacked waiter, they were all grinning away.
“‘And how did Monsieur travel?’ said the old gentleman, who seemed to carry on the prosecution against me.
“‘By the diligence, the “Aigle noir,”’ said I, giving the name with some pride, that I was not altogether ignorant of the conveyance.
“‘Then you should certainly not complain of the roads,’ said the host chuckling; ‘for the only journey that diligence has made this day has been from the street-door to the inn-yard; for as they found when the luggage was nearly packed that the axle was almost broken through, they wheeled it round to the court, and prepared another for the travellers.’
“‘And where am I now?’ said I.