“But Frank is not going to stay all night in the room of one that is dead! What good will that do?”
“It is the respect that appreciation pays to genius,” said Master Lewis.
Ernest Wynn wished to spend the night with Frank, and received Master Lewis’s permission.
“Why, Ernest!” said Tommy, “I thought you had more sense. I am glad I am not literary. This is the strangest thing I have met with yet.”
Chateaubriand’s birthplace is the Hotel de France. His room is among those offered to visitors, at a little extra cost. Master Lewis had stopped at the hotel during a previous tour.
If Tommy was surprised at the “respect appreciation pays to genius,” in the incident of sleeping in Chateaubriand’s room, he was more so by a conversation which took place next day, when Master Lewis made his plans for the last zigzag journeys.
“The last place we will visit,” he said, “is Nantes. We will go by rail to Rennes, and by diligences the rest of the way, which will afford you a fine view of Brittany. At Rennes, we will make, if you like, a détour to Vitré.”
“What shall we see there?” asked Tommy.
“The residence of Madame de Sévigné.”
“Is she living?” asked Tommy.