“I recognize this part of the country,” said Freluchon as they crossed Gournay bridge. “This is where I came for that famous matelote, which you left me to eat all alone.”
“Yes, the estate we are going to is a little beyond Gournay.”
“Ah, yes! Gournay! a little village that I could put in my pocket. Suppose we should stop and eat a matelote when we come back?”
“Can you think of such a thing? What about my duel, and the seconds I expect?”
“If Chamoureau is one of them, they won’t come till next week.—I am very hungry myself. Will your high-toned gentleman invite us to breakfast? It seems to me that that is the most high-toned thing he could do.”
Edmond’s only reply was to quicken his pace.
Freluchon trotted along behind him, saying:
“If I had known it was so far, I’d have hired an ass for us both; we should have resembled half of the Four Sons of Aymon. Do you know, I have always liked that story of the Four Sons of Aymon! particularly on account of their horse. Horses of that build aren’t made to-day! Think of putting four people on one of our ponies of the present day! even the third one would be on his tail—where would the fourth one be, I would like to know?”
The young men reached the Tower in due time. Edmond was about to ask to speak with the proprietor, when he, having seen them coming, hastened forward to meet the two friends.
Paul was no longer the same man; a complete change had taken place in his whole aspect since the preceding night. In place of the gloomy, careworn expression which was habitual to him, he presented himself to Edmond with a smiling, expansive countenance. His dress too had undergone a change; he was dressed with more care and had shaved part of his beard; he was no longer the man who shuns society.