"In Auvergne!" he said; "ninety leagues from Paris! The devil! I shan’t be able to breakfast at the Café Anglais and return to my château at night."
"But consider too, monsieur, that an estate near Paris soon becomes ruinous by the number of visitors you receive; one person comes to pass a week with you, another a fortnight; you are never free; you need a large fortune to meet the expense that that occasions."
"That is true; and in Auvergne people won’t drive out to breakfast with me.—I am not familiar with Auvergne; is it a pleasant country?"
"Oh! it’s a most interesting, most picturesque region, monsieur. The little town of Saint-Amand and its neighborhood form one of the most remarkable districts of the Limagne d’Auvergne. You will see mountains in all directions and green fields. Nature abounds in accidents of rare beauty."
"There are accidents, you say?"
"I am speaking as an artist; I mean that you will be surprised, on emerging from a rugged mountain chain, to see before you vine-covered hillsides, and valleys where the most luscious fruits and the most nutritious vegetables grow in abundance."
"That’s what comes of not travelling! I imagined that there was nothing to see in Auvergne but mountain-rats."
"The little village of Talende is supplied with water by one of the most noteworthy and most abundant springs of living water known. Julius Cæsar called Talende the bed of the gods!"
"In that case the people ought to sleep very comfortably."
"Lastly, Auvergne has given birth to more than one famous man: at Aigueperse the Chancellor de l’Hôpital was born; Riom was the birthplace of Anne Dubourg, Issoire of Cardinal Duprat; and the little hamlet of Chanonat witnessed the birth of the amiable Delille, and has been celebrated in song by that poet."