"'Then you have perhaps come far this morning,' said a gentleman
opposite.

"'Yes,' said I, 'I have been on the road since four o'clock.'

"'And how are the roads?' said another. 'Very bad,' said I, 'the first
few stages from Lyons, afterwards much better.' This was said at a
venture, as I began to be ashamed of being always asleep before my
fellow-travellers. They did not seem, however, to understand me
perfectly; and one old fellow putting down his spectacles from his
forehead, leaned over and said: 'And where, may I ask, has Monsieur come
from this morning?'

"'From Lyons,' said I, with the proud air of a man who has done a stout
feat, and is not ashamed of the exploit.

"'From Lyons!' said one. 'From Lyons!' cried another. 'From Lyons!'
repeated a third.

"'Yes,' said I; 'what the devil is so strange in it; travelling is so
quick now-a-days, one thinks nothing of twenty leagues before dinner.'

"The infernal shout of laughing that followed my explanation is still in
my ears; from one end of the table to the other there was one continued
ha, ha, ha--from the greasy host to the little hunchbacked waiter, they
were all grinning away.

"'And how did Monsieur travel?' said the old gentleman, who seemed to
carry on the prosecution against me.