Robineau seated himself with a distressed air on a block of stone, and watched his companions, who were more than a hundred feet above him. Alfred beckoned to him to join them.
"Come up here!" he shouted; "it’s superb! You can see the whole country!"
"Can you see my château?" shouted Robineau.
"Oh! we can see a dozen!"
These words induced the new landed proprietor to climb the hill. He reached the top drenched with perspiration, and mopped his brow as he looked about.
"Well! are you sorry that you came up?" said Alfred.
"Isn’t it worth while to tire oneself a bit for this, eh, Monsieur Jules?"
"It is very pretty, messieurs, I agree; you can see a long distance. But I have seen just as much in Messieurs Daguerre and Bouton’s Diorama."
"The Diorama is certainly a beautiful thing, my friend; it is impossible to carry illusion and perfection of detail any farther; but art should not interfere with our admiration of nature."
"You may say what you please, messieurs, but I prefer the Diorama; there at least I have an explanation of what I see; but here I have no idea what I am looking at.—There’s a village yonder, and I don’t know what village it is."