For a long time we skirted the edge of a lake, very blue between its green banks—that is all I remember about it; then stopped in front of a commonplace little house by the side of the road. Where this was I do not know. A recent study of Baedeker makes me suppose that it was at a place called Brunnen.
On the other side of the road was the lake, and the landing-place for the boats was almost in front of the house.
There was nothing to indicate that it was an inn, but the Master knew the people, and while we went upstairs to a room on the first floor, furnished only with a round table, some chairs, and an old piano, he conferred with the proprietor and arranged the menu. He returned to us triumphant, and cried:
"We shall have 'un druide' of ancient Gaul!" The meaning of this terrible pun did not strike us at first, but we laughed immoderately when we found that it was a question of "une truite" (a trout)!
Two windows of the little room that we were in faced the lake, a third, a side window, was open and overlooked the court, where a blacksmith was at work. Wagner listened to the ringing stroke of the hammer on the anvil. Suddenly he opened the piano and began to play the motif of Siegfried forging the sword. At the measure where the blade is struck he stopped, and it was the blacksmith who, striking the iron with an astonishing precision, unconsciously completed the theme.
"You see," said the Master, "how well I have calculated the time, and how exactly the blow falls."
But "le druide" made his entrance, and we proceeded to render him the honours that he merited.
XIX
Wagner was an admirable organiser. Just as the coffee was finished and the cigarettes smoked, we heard the whistle of the steamboat, and had only to cross the road and go aboard. What is there to tell about this voyage, except that there are some moments in life when all nature is illuminated by the light that you carry within yourself; when the air seems more limpid, the sky more luminous, the water more transparent; when all vibrates harmoniously throughout the scene which envelops your joy.