invariably encountered it every time I have visited that city.
Biard was under some apprehension as to what sort of accommodation we should find at Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam, a ceremony such we had come to see being bound to attract a great crowd of travellers. But I am a man of foresight. Besides, what town is there in Europe where I have not some resident acquaintance?
In 1840, I was travelling down the Rhône. Going on board at Lyons at four o'clock in the morning, I had dropped asleep about eleven or twelve in the day, under shelter of the deck awning, fanned by the fresh breeze that generally blows along the courses of rivers.
So soft and sweet were my slumbers that, albeit half wakened two or three times over by various accidental circumstances, I had refused to open my eyes for fear of interrupting my nap altogether. So I had remained impassive, my wits floating idly in the vague twilight of semi-consciousness. Presently I was disturbed in my pleasant reverie for the third or fourth time; this time my brain, still but half awake, became conscious nevertheless of two women's voices speaking French tinged with a suspicion of an English accent.
I opened my eyes quietly, and looking cautiously about me from beneath my half closed lids, I beheld a group made up of two young women of eighteen or twenty, a young man of twenty-six or twenty-eight, and another of thirty-four or thirty-five.
The two ladies were charming,—a charm due^both to their personal beauty, and still more to that unaffected almost unconscious grace of carriage that Englishwomen possess. Their two companions were both men of distinguished appearance.
A discussion was agitating this group of persons, turning upon the best route to follow; should they leave the boat at Avignon or go on to Aries? It was a momentous question, and one presenting many difficulties for a party of foreigners with no better guide than " Richard."
"I wish," one of the ladies hazarded, " I wish someone who has made the journey both by Aries and by Avignon would kindly tell us which is the better way to go."
The wish seemed specially addressed to me. I had travelled three or four times from Lyons to Vearseilles by the Rhône, and had gone by each of the two places named. I thought the moment opportune for introducing myself, and that the service I could do my fellow travellers might well excuse my boldness.
I opened my eyes altogether, and half bowing, I broke in:
"If, gentlemen, you will permit the author of the Impressions de Voyage to enlighten you on the all-important point in question, I may inform these ladies that it is more repaying to go by Aries than by Avignon."
The two girls blushed; their two companions turned to me with polite smiles on their faces. It was clear they already knew my name before I spoke, and had been informed who I was while I was asleep.
"And why so, may I ask?" inquired the elder of the two gentlemen.
"In the first place, because you will have an opportunity of seeing Aries, and Aries is well worth seeing. Secondly, from Aries to Marseilles you will have a road free from dust and very interesting into the bargain, passing as it does between the Camargue, that is to say, Marius' camp in old days, on the one hand, and the Crau on the other."
"But we have to be at Marseilles by the day after to-morrow."
"So we shall."
"We are leaving by the Leghorn Steamer."
"I am going by the same boat."
"We wish to be in Florence for the Feast of San Giovanni."
"I am expected there on the same date."
"How can we get from Aries to Marseilles?"
"I have my calèche on board. We are five, and it holds six. We will hire post horses, and picnic en route as we go along. I will be your cicerone to all the sights."
The two travellers glanced at their fair companions. The latter gave an almost imperceptible nod to signify their assent, and the thing was settled. It was still honeymoon time with the two couples, and during that happy period the lady, as everybody knows, has the right to decided all debateable questions.
We had a charming journey. At
