CHAPTER XXIV.
THE FETE AT COURBEVOIE.
"_Halte la_! I thought I should catch you about this time! They've beengiving you unconscionable good measure to-day, though, haven't they? Ithought Bollinet's lecture was always over by three; and here I've beenmoralizing on the flight of Time for more than twenty minutes."
So saying, Mueller, having stopped me as I was coming down the steps ofthe Hotel Dieu, linked his arm in mine, drew me into a shady angle underthe lee of Notre Dame, and, without leaving me time to reply, went onpouring out his light, eager chatter as readily as a mountain-springbubbles out its waters.
"I thought you'd like to know about the Tapottes, you see--and I wasdying to tell you. I went to your rooms last night between eight andnine, and you were out; so I thought the only sure way was to comehere--I know you never miss Bollinet's Lectures. Well, as I was saying,the Tapottes.... Oh, _mon cher_! I am your debtor for life in thatmatter of Milord Smithfield. It has been the making of me. What do youthink? Tapotte is not only going to sit for a companion half-length toMadame's portrait, but he has given me a commission for half-a-dozenancestors. Fancy--half-a-dozen illustrious dead-and-done Tapottes! Whata scope for the imagination! What a bewildering vista of _billets debanque_! I feel--ah, _mon ami_! I feel that the wildest visions of myyouth are about to be realized, and that I shall see my tailor's billreceipted before I die!"
"I'm delighted," said I, "that Tapotte has turned up a trump card."
"A trump card? Say a California--a Pactolus--a Golden Calf. Nay, hathnot Tapotte two golden calves? Is he not of the precious metal allcompact? Stands he not, in the amiable ripeness of his years, a livingrepresentative of the Golden Age? _'O bella eta dell' oro_!'"
And to my horror, he then and there executed a frantic _pas seul_.
"Gracious powers!" I exclaimed. "Are you mad?"
"Yes--raving mad. Have you any objection?"
"But, my dear fellow--in the face of day--in the streets of Paris! Weshall get taken up by the police!"
"Then suppose we get out of the streets of Paris? I'm tired enough,Heaven knows, of cultivating the arid soil of the Pave. See, it's aglorious afternoon. Let's go somewhere."
"With all my heart. Where?"
"_Ah, mon Dieu! ca m'est egal_. Enghien--Vincennes--St.Cloud--Versailles ... anywhere you like. Most probably there's a fetegoing on somewhere, if we only knew where,"
"Can't we find out?"
"Oh, yes--we can drop into a Cafe and look at the _Petites Affiches_;only that entails an absinthe; or we can go into the nearest OmnibusBureau and see the notices on the walls, which will be cheaper."
So we threaded our way along the narrow thoroughfares of the Ile de laCite, and came presently to an Omnibus Bureau on the Quai de l'Horloge,overlooking the Pont Neuf and the river. Here the first thing we saw wasa flaming placard setting forth the pleasures and attractions of thegreat annual fete at Courbevoie; a village on the banks of the Seine, amile or two beyond Neuilly.
"_Voila, notre affaire_!" said Mueller, gaily. "We can't do better thansteer straight for Courbevoie."
Saying which, he hailed a passing fiacre and bade the coachman drive tothe Embarcadere of the Rive Droite.
"We shall amuse ourselves famously at Courbevoie," he said, as werattled over the stones. "We'll dine at the Toison d'Or--an excellentlittle restaurant overlooking the river; and if you're fond of angling,we can hire a punt and catch our own fish for dinner. Then there will beplenty of fiddling and dancing at the guingettes and gardens in theevening. By the way, though, I've no money! That is to say, none worthspeaking of--_voila!_... one franc, one piece of fifty centimes, anotherof twenty centimes, and some sous. I hope your pockets are better linedthan mine."
"Not much, I fear," I replied, pulling out my porte-monnaie, andemptying the contents into my hand. They amounted to nine francs andseventy-five centimes.
"_Parbleu_! we've just eleven francs and a half between us," saidMueller. "A modest sum-total; but we must make it as elastic as we can.Let me see, there'll be a franc for the fiacre, four francs for ourreturn tickets, four for our dinner, and two and a half to spend as welike in the fair. Well, we can't commit any great extravagance with thatamount of floating capital."
"Better turn back and go to my rooms for some more money?" I exclaimed."I've two Napoleons in my desk."
"No, no--we should miss the three-fifty train, and not get another tillbetween five and six."
"But we shall have no fun if we have no money!"
"I dissent entirely from that proposition, Monsieur Englishman. I havealways had plenty of fun, and I have been short of cash since the hourof my birth. Come, it shall be my proud task to-day to prove to you thepleasures of impecuniosity!"
So with our eleven francs and a half we went on to the station, and tookour places for Courbevoie.
We travelled, of course, by third class in the open wagons; and it sohappened that in our compartment we had the company of three prettylittle chattering grisettes, a fat countrywoman with a basket, and aquiet-looking elderly female with her niece. These last wore bonnets,and some kind of slight mourning. They belonged evidently to the smallbourgeoise class, and sat very quietly in the corner of the carriage,speaking to no one. The three grisettes, however, kept up an incessantfire of small talk and squabble.
"I was on this very line last Sunday," said one. "I went with Julie toAsnieres, and we were so gay! I wonder if it will be very gay atCourbevoie."
"_Je m'en doute_," replied another, whom they called Lolotte. "I came toone of the Courbevoie fetes last spring, and it was not gay at all. Butthen, to be sure, I was with Edouard, and he is as dull as the first dayin Lent. Where were you last Sunday, Adele?"
"I did not go beyond the barriers. I went to the Cirque with my cousin,and we dined in the Palais Royal. We enjoyed ourselves so much! You knowmy cousin?"
"Ah! yes--the little fellow with the curly hair and the whiskers, whowaits for you at the corner when we leave the workshop."
"The same--Achille."
"Your Achille is nice-looking," said Mademoiselle Lolotte, with asomewhat critical air. "It is a pity he squints."
"He does not squint, mam'selle."
"Oh, _ma chere_! I appeal to Caroline."
"I am not sure that he actually squints," said Mam'selle Caroline,speaking for the first time; "but he certainly has one eye larger thanthe other, and of quite a different color."
"_Tiens_, Caroline--it seems to me that you look very closely into theeyes of young men," exclaims Adele, turning sharply upon this newassailant.
"At all events you admit that Caroline is right," cries Lolotte,triumphantly.
"I admit nothing of the kind. I say that you are both very ill-natured,and that you say what is not true. As for you, Lolotte, I don't believeyou ever had the chance of seeing a young man's eyes turned upon you, oryou would not be so pleased with the attentions of an old one."
"An _old_ one!" shrieked Mam'selle Lolotte. "Ah, _mon Dieu_! Is a manold at forty-seven? Monsieur Durand is in the prime of life, and thereisn't a girl in the Quartier who would not be proud of his attentions!"
"He's sixty, if an hour," said the injured Adele. "And as for you,Caroline, who have never had a beau in your life...."
"_Ciel_! what a calumny!--I--never had a ... Holy Saint Genevieve! why,it was only last Thursday week...."
Here the train stopped at the Asnieres station, and two privates of theGarde Imperiale got into the carriage. The horizon cleared as if bymagic. The grisettes suddenly forgot their differences, and began tochat quite amicably. The soldiers twirled their mustachios, listened,smiled, and essayed to join in the conversation. In a few minutes allwas mirth and flirtation.
Meanwhile Mueller was casting admiring glances on the young girl in thecorner, whilst the fat countrywoman, pursing up her mouth, and watchingthe grisettes and soldiers, looked the image of offended virtue.
"Dame! Madame," she said, addressing herself to the old lady in thebonnet, "girls usen
't to be so forward in the days when you and Iwere young!"
To which the old lady in the bonnet, blandly smiling, replied:--
"Beautiful, for the time of year."
"Eh? For the time of year? Dame! I don't see that the time of year hasanything to do with it," exclaimed the fat countrywoman.
Here the young girl in the corner, blushing and smiling very sweetly,interposed with--"Pardon, Madame--my aunt is somewhat deaf. Pray,excuse her."
Whereupon the old lady, watching the motion of her niece's lips, added--
"Ah, yes--yes! I am a poor, deaf old woman--I don't understand what yousay. Talk to my little Marie, here--she can answer you."
"I, for one, desire nothing better than permission to talk toMademoiselle," said Mueller, gallantly.
_"Mais, Monsieur_..."
"Mademoiselle, with Madame her aunt, are going to the fete atCourbevoie?"
"Yes, Monsieur."
"The river is very pretty thereabouts, and the walks through the meadowsare delightful."
"Indeed, Monsieur!"
"Mademoiselle does not know the place?"
"No, Monsieur."
"Ah, if I might only be permitted to act as guide! I know every foot ofthe ground about Courbevoie."
Mademoiselle Marie blushed again, looked down, and made no reply.
"I am a painter," continued Mueller; "and I have sketched all thewindings of the Seine from Neuilly to St. Germains. My friend here isEnglish--he is a student of medicine, and speaks excellent French."
"What is the gentleman saying, _mon enfant_?" asked the old lady,somewhat anxiously.
"Monsieur says that the river is very pretty about Courbevoie, _matante_," replied Mademoiselle Marie, raising her voice.
"Ah! ah! and what else?"
"Monsieur is a painter."
"A painter? Ah, dear me! it's an unhealthy occupation. My poor brotherPierre might have been alive to this day if he had taken to any otherline of business! You must take great care of your lungs, young man. Youlook delicate."
Mueller laughed, shook his head, and declared at the top of his voicethat he had never had a day's illness in his life.
Here the pretty niece again interposed.
"Ah, Monsieur," she said, "my aunt does not understand....My--my unclePierre was a house-painter."
"A very respectable occupation, Mademoiselle," replied Mueller, politely."For my own part, I would sooner paint the insides of some houses thanthe outsides of some people."
At this moment the train began to slacken pace, and the steam was letoff with a demoniac shriek.
"_Tiens, mon enfant_," said the old lady, turning towards her niece withaffectionate anxiety. "I hope you have not taken cold."
The excellent soul believed that it was Mademoiselle Marie who sneezed.
And now the train had stopped--the porters were running along theplatform, shouting "Courbevoie! Courbevoie!"--the passengers werescrambling out _en masse_--and beyond the barrier one saw a confusedcrowd of _charrette_ and omnibus-drivers, touters, fruit-sellers, andidlers of every description. Mueller handed out the old lady and theniece; the fat countrywoman scrambled up into a kind of tumbril drivenby a boy in _sabots_; the grisettes and soldiers walked off together;and the tide of holiday-makers, some on foot, some in hired vehicles,set towards the village. In the meanwhile, what with the crowd on theplatform and the crowd outside the barrier, and what with the hustlingand pushing at the point where the tickets were taken, we lost sight ofthe old lady and her niece.
"What the deuce has become of _ma tante_?" exclaimed Mueller, lookinground.
But neither _ma tante_ nor Mademoiselle Marie were anywhere to be seen.I suggested that they must have gone on in the omnibus or taken a_charrette_, and so have passed us unperceived.
"And, after all," I added, "we didn't want to enter upon an indissolubleunion with them for the rest of the day. _Ma tante's_ deafness is notentertaining, and _la petite_ Marie has nothing to say."
"_La petite_ Marie is uncommonly pretty, though," said Mueller. "I meanto dance a quadrille with her by-and-by, I promise you."
"_A la bonne heure_! We shall be sure to chance upon them again beforelong."
We had come by this time to a group of pretty villa-residences with highgarden walls and little shady side-lanes leading down to the river. Thencame a church and more houses; then an open Place; and suddenly we foundourselves in the midst of the fair.
It was just like any other of the hundred and one fetes that take placeevery summer in the environs of Paris. There was a merry-go-round and agreasy pole; there was a juggler who swallowed knives and ribbons; therewere fortune-tellers without number; there were dining-booths, anddrinking-booths, and dancing-booths; there were acrobats, organ-boyswith monkeys, and Savoyards with white mice; there were stalls for thesale of cakes, fruit, sweetmeats, toys, combs, cheap jewelry, glass,crockery, boots and shoes, holy-water vessels, rosaries, medals, andlittle colored prints of saints and martyrs; there were brass bands, andstring bands, and ballad-singers everywhere; and there was an atmospherecompounded of dust, tobacco-smoke, onions, musk, and every objectionableperfume under heaven.
"Dine at the Restaurant de l'Empire, Messieurs," shouted a shabbytouter in a blouse, thrusting a greasy card into our faces. "Threedishes, a dessert, a half-bottle, and a band of music, for onefranc-fifty. The cheapest dinner in the fair!"
"The cheapest dinner in the fair is at the Belle Gabrielle!" criedanother. "We'll give you for the same money soup, fish, two dishes, adessert, a half-bottle, and take your photograph into the bargain!"
"Bravo! _mon vieux_--you first poison them with your dinner, and thenprovide photographs for the widows and children," retorts touter numberone. "That's justice, anyhow."
Whereupon touter number two shrieks out a torrent of abuse, and we pushon, leaving them to settle their differences after their own fashion.
At the next booth we are accosted by a burly fellow daubed to the eyeswith red and blue paint, and dressed as an Indian chief.
"_Entrez, entrez, Messieurs et Mesdames_" he cries, flourishing awar-spear some nine feet in length. "Come and see the wonderful Peruvianmaiden of Tanjore, with webbed fingers and toes, her mouth in the backof her head, and her eyes in the soles of her feet! Only four sous each,and an opportunity that will never occur again!"
"Only fifty centimes!" shouts another public orator; "the most ingeniouslittle machine ever invented! Goes into the waistcoat pocket--is woundup every twenty-four hours--tells the day of the month, the day of theyear, the age of the moon, the state of the Bourse, the bank rate ofdiscount, the quarter from which the wind is blowing, the price ofnew-laid eggs in Paris and the provinces, the rate of mortality in theFee-jee islands, and the state of your sweetheart's affections!"
A little further on, by dint of much elbowing, we made our way into acrowded booth where, for the modest consideration of two sous per head,might be seen a Boneless Youth and an Ashantee King. The performanceswere half over when we went in. The Boneless Youth had gone through hisfeats of agility, and was lying on a mat in a corner of the stage, thepicture of limp incapability. The Ashantee monarch was just about tomake his appearance. Meanwhile, a little man in fleshings and a cockedhat addressed the audience.
"Messieurs and Mesdames--I have the honor to announce that CarabaRadokala, King of Ashantee, will next appear before you. This terrificnative sovereign was taken captive by that famous Dutch navigator, theMynheer Van Dunk, in his last voyage round the globe. Van Dunk, havingbrought his prisoner to Europe in an iron cage, sold him to the Englishgovernment in 1840; who sold him again to Milord Barnum, the greatAmerican philanthropist, in 1842; who sold him again to Franconi of theCirque Olympique; who finally sold him to me. At the time of hiscapture, Caraba Radokala was the most treacherous, barbarous, andsanguinary monster upon record. He had three hundred and sixty-fivewives--a wife, you observe, for every day in the year. He livedexclusively upon human flesh, and consumed, when in good health, onebaby per diem. His palace
in Ashantee was built entirely of the skullsand leg-bones of his victims. He is now, however, much less ferocious;and, though he feeds on live pigeons, rabbits, dogs, mice, and the like,he has not tasted human flesh since his captivity. He is also heavilyironed. The distinguished company need therefore entertain noapprehensions. Pierre--draw the bolt, and let his majesty loose!"
A savage roar was now heard, followed by a rattling of chains. Then thecurtains were suddenly drawn back, and the Ashantee king--crowned with afeather head-dress, loaded with red and blue war-paint, and chained fromankle to ankle--bounded on the stage.
Seeing the audience before him, he uttered a terrific howl. The frontrows were visibly agitated. Several young women faintly screamed.
The little man in the cocked hat rushed to the front, protesting thatthe ladies had no reason to be alarmed. Caraba Radokala, if not wantonlyprovoked, was now quite harmless--a little irritable, perhaps, frombeing waked too suddenly--would be as gentle as a lamb, if givensomething to eat:--"Pierre, quiet his majesty with a pigeon!"
Pierre, a lank lad in motley, hereupon appeared with a live pigeon,which immediately escaped from his hands and perched on the top of theproscenium. Caraba Radokala yelled; the little man in the cocked hatraved; and Pierre, in default of more pigeons, contritely reappearedwith a lump of raw beef, into which his majesty ravenously dug his royalteeth. The pigeon, meanwhile, dressed its feathers and lookedcomplacently down, as if used to the incident.
"Having fed, Caraba Radokala will now be quite gentle and good-humored,"said the showman. "If any lady desires to shake hands with him, she maydo so with perfect safety. Will any lady embrace the opportunity?"
A faint sound of tittering was heard in various parts of the booth; butno one came forward.
"Will _no_ lady be persuaded? Well, then, is there any gentleman presentwho speaks Ashantee?"
Mueller gave me a dig with his elbow, and started to his feet.
"Yes," he replied, loudly. "I do."
Every head was instantly turned in our direction.
The showman collapsed with astonishment. Even the captive, despite hisignorance of the French tongue, looked considerably startled.
"_Comment_!" stammered the cocked hat. "Monsieur speaks Ashantee?"
"Fluently."
"Is it permitted to inquire how and when monsieur acquired this veryunusual accomplishment?"
"I have spoken Ashantee from my infancy," replied Mueller, with admirableaplomb. "I was born at sea, brought up in an undiscovered island, twicekidnapped by hostile tribes before attaining the age of ten years, andhave lived among savage nations all my life."
A murmur of admiration ran through the audience, and Mueller became, forthe time, an object of livelier interest than Caraba Radokala himself.Seeing this, the indignant monarch executed a warlike _pas_, and rattledhis chains fiercely.
"In that case, monsieur, you had better come upon the stage, and speakto his majesty," said the showman reluctantly.
"With all the pleasure in life."
"But I warn you that his temper is uncertain."
"Bah!" said Mueller, working his way round through the crowd, "I'm notafraid of his temper."
"As monsieur pleases--but, if monsieur offends him, _I_ will not beanswerable for the consequences."
"All right--give us a hand up, _mon vieux_!" And Muller, havingclambered upon the stage, made a bow to the audience and a salaam tohis majesty.
"Chickahominy chowdar bang," said he, by way of opening theconversation.
The ex-king of Ashantee scowled, folded his arms, and maintained ahaughty silence.
"Hic hac horum, high cockalorum," continued Mueller, with exceedingsuavity.
The captive monarch stamped impatiently, ground his teeth, but stillmade no reply.
"Monsieur had better not aggravate him," said the showman. "On thecontrary--I am overwhelming him with civilities Now observe--I condolewith him upon his melancholy position. I inquire after his wives andchildren; and I remark how uncommonly well he is looking."
And with this, he made another salaam, smiled persuasively, and said--
"Alpha, beta, gamma, delta--chin-chin--Potz tausend!--Erin-go-bragh!"
"Borriobooloobah!" shrieked his majesty, apparently stung todesperation.
"Rocofoco!" retorted Mueller promptly.
But as if this last was more than any Ashantee temper could bear, CarabaRodokala clenched both his fists, set his teeth hard, and charged downupon Mueller like a wild elephant. Being met, however, by a well-plantedblow between the eyes, he went down like a ninepin--picked himselfup,--rushed in again, and, being forcibly seized and held back by thecocked hat, Pierre of the pigeons, and a third man who came tumbling upprecipitately from somewhere behind the stage, vented his fury, in atorrent of very highly civilized French oaths.
"Eh, _sacredieu_!" he cried, shaking his fist in Mueller's face, "I'venot done with you yet, _diable de galerien_!"
Whereupon there burst forth a general roar--a roar like the"inextinguishable laughter" of Olympus.
"_Tiens_!" said Mueller, "his majesty speaks French almost as well as Ispeak Ashantee!"
"_Bourreau! Brigand! Assassin_!" shrieked his Ferocity, as his friendshustled him off the stage.
The curtains then fell together again; and the audience, still laughingvociferously, dispersed with cries of "Vive Caraba Rodokala!" "Kindremembrances to the Queens of Ashantee!" "What's the latest news fromhome?" "Borriobooloo-bah--ah--ah!"
Elbowing our way out with the crowd, we now plunged once more into thepress of the fair. Here our old friends the dancing dogs of the ChampsElysees, and the familiar charlatan of the Place du Chatelet with hischariot and barrel-organ, transported us from Ashantee to Paris. Next wecame to a temporary shooting-gallery, adorned over the entrance with aspirited cartoon of a Tyrolean sharpshooter; and then to an exhibitionof cosmoramas; and presently to a weighing machine, in which a great,rosy-cheeked, laughing Normandy peasant girl, with her high cap, blueskirt, massive gold cross and heavy ear-rings, was in the act ofbeing weighed.
"_Tiens! Mam'selle est joliment solide_!" remarks a saucy bystander, asthe owner of the machine piles on weight after weight.
"Perhaps if I had no more brains than m'sieur, I should weigh as light!"retorts the damsel, with a toss of her high cap.
"_Pardon_! it is not a question of brains--it is a question of hearts,"interposes an elderly exquisite in a white hat. "Mam'selle has capturedso many that she is completely over weighted."
"Twelve stone six ounces," pronounces the owner of the machine,adjusting the last weight.
Whereupon there is a burst of ironical applause, and the big _paysanne_,half laughing, half angry, walks off, exclaiming, "_Eh bien! tantmieux_! I've no mind to be a scarecrow--_moi_!"
By this time we have both had enough of the fair, and are glad to makeour way out of the crowd and down to the riverside. Here we find loversstrolling in pairs along the towing-path; family groups pic-nicking inthe shade; boats and punts for hire, and a swimming-match just comingoff, of which all that is visible are two black heads bobbing up anddown along the middle of the stream.
"And now, _mon ami_, what do you vote for?" asks Mueller. "Boating orfishing? or both? or neither?"
"Both, if you like--but I never caught anything in my life,"
"The pleasure of fishing, I take it," says Mueller, "is not in the fishyou catch, but in the fish you miss. The fish you catch is a poor littlewretch, worth neither the trouble of landing, cooking, nor eating; butthe fish you miss is always the finest fellow you ever saw inyour life!"
"_Allons donc_! I know, then, which of us two will have most of thepleasure to-day," I reply, laughing. "But how about the expense?"
To which Mueller, with a noble recklessness, answers:--
"Oh, hang the expense! Here, boatman! a boat _a quatre rames_, and somefishing-tackle--by the hour."
Now it was undoubtedly a fine sentiment this of Mueller's, and had we butfetched my two Napoleons before starting, I
should have applauded it tothe echo; but when I considered that something very nearly approachingto a franc had already filtered out of our pockets in passing throughthe fair, and that the hour of dinner was looming somewhat indefinitelyin the distance, I confess that my soul became disquieted within me.
"Don't forget, for heaven's sake," I said, "that we must keep somethingfor dinner!"
"My dear fellow," he replied, "I have already a tremendous appetite fordinner--that _is_ something."
After this, I resigned myself to whatever might happen.
We then rowed up the river for about a mile beyond Courbevoie. mooredour boat to a friendly willow, put our fishing-tackle together, andcomposed ourselves for the gentle excitement that waits upon the gudgeonand the minnow.
"I haven't yet had a single nibble," said Mueller, when we had beensitting to our work for something less than ten minutes.
"Hush!" I said. "You mustn't speak, you know."
"True--I had forgotten. I'll sing instead. Fishes, I have been told, arefond of music.
'Fanfan, je vous aimerais bien; Contre vous je n'ai nul caprice; Vous etes gentil, j'en convien....'"
"Come, now!" I exclaimed pettishly, "this is really too bad. I had abite--a most decided bite--and if you had only kept quiet"....
"Nonsense, my dear fellow! I tell you again--and I have it on the bestauthority--fishes like music. Did you never hear of Arion! Have youforgotten about the Syrens? Believe me, your gudgeon nibbled because Isang him to the surface--just as the snakes come out for the song of thesnake-charmer. I'll try again!"
And with this he began:--
"Jeannette est une brune Qui demeure a Pantin, Ou toute sa fortune Est un petit jardin!"
"Well, if you go on like that, all I have to say is, that not a fishwill come within half a mile of our bait," said I, withtranquil despair.
"Alas! _mon cher_, I am grieved to observe in your otherwise estimablecharacter, a melancholy want of faith," replied Mueller "Without faith,what is friendship? What is angling? What is matrimony? Now, I tell youthat with regard to the finny tribe, the more I charm them, the moreenthusiastically they will flock to be caught. We shall have amiraculous draught in a few minutes, if you are but patient."
And then he began again:--
"Mimi Pinson est une blonde, Une blonde que l'on connait. Elle n'a qu'une robe au monde, Landerirette! Et qu'un bonnet."
I laid aside my rod, folded my arms, and when he had done, applaudedironically.
"Very good," I said. "I understand the situation. We are here, atsome--indeed, I may say, considering the state of our exchequer, at aconsiderable mutual expense; not to catch fish, but to afford HerrMueller an opportunity of exercising his extensive memory, and hislimited baritone voice. The entertainment is not without its_agrements_, but I find it dear at the price."
"_Tiens_, Arbuthnot! let us fish seriously. I promise not to open mylips again till you have caught something."
"Then, seriously, I believe you would have to be silent the whole night,and all I should catch would be the rheumatism. I am the worst angler inthe world, and the most unlucky."
"Really and truly?"
"Really and truly. And you?"
"As bad as yourself. If a tolerably large and energetic fish did me thehonor to swallow my bait, the probability is that he would catch me. Icertainly shouldn't know what to do with him."
"Then the present question is--what shall we do with ourselves?"
"I vote that we row up as far as yonder bend in the river, just to seewhat lies beyond; and then back to Courbevoie."
"Heaven only grant that by that time we shall have enough money left fordinner!" I murmured with a sigh.
We rowed up the river as far as the first bend, a distance of abouthalf a mile; and then we rowed on as far as the next bend. Then weturned, and, resting on our oars, drifted slowly back with the current.The evening was indescribably brilliant and serene. The sky wascloudless, of a greenish blue, and full of light. The river was clear asglass. We could see the flaccid water-weeds swaying languidly with thecurrent far below, and now and then a shoal of tiny fish shooting alonghalf-way between the weeds and the surface. A rich fringe of purpleiris, spear-leaved sagittarius, and tufted meadow-sweet (each blossom abouquet on a slender thyrsus) bordered the towing-path and filled theair with perfume. Here the meadows lay open to the water's edge; alittle farther on, they were shut off by a close rampart of poplars andwillows whose leaves, already yellowed by autumn, were now fiery in thesunset. Joyous bands of gnats, like wild little intoxicated maenads,circled and hummed about our heads as we drifted slowly on; while, faraway and mellowed by distance, we heard the brazen music of the fair.
We were both silent. Mueller pulled out a small sketch-book and made arapid study of the scene--the reach in the river; the wooded banks; thegreen flats traversed by long lines of stunted pollards; the church-topsand roofs of Courbevoie beyond.
Presently a soft voice, singing, broke upon the silence. Mueller stoppedinvoluntarily, pencil in hand. I held my breath, and listened. The tunewas flowing and sweet; and as our boat drifted on, the words of thesinger became audible.
"O miroir ondoyant! Je reve en te voyant Harmonie et lumiere, O ma riviere, O ma belle riviere!
"On voit se reflechir Dans ses eaux les nuages; Elle semble dormir Entre les paturages
Ou paissent les grands boeufs Et les grasses genisses. Au patres amoureux Que ses bords sont propices!"
"A woman's voice," said Mueller. "Dupont's words and music. She must beyoung and pretty ... where has she hidden herself?"
The unseen singer, meanwhile, went on with another verse.
"Pres des iris du bord, Sous une berge haute, La carpe aux reflets d'or Ou le barbeau ressaute, Les goujons font le guet, L'Ablette qui scintille Fuit le dent du brochet; Au fond rampe l'anguille!
"O miroir ondoyant! Je reve en te voyant Harmonic et lumiere, O ma riviere, O ma belle riviere!"
"Look!" said Mueller. "Do you not see them yonder--two women under thetrees? By Jupiter! it's _ma tante_ and _la petite_ Marie!"
Saying which, he flung himself upon his oars and began pullingvigorously towards the shore.