said, her dreams of romance more perfectly than ever before. We
could not tear ourselves away. But the clash of the sexton's keys, as
he smote them together, was the signal to be gone. One after another
the tapers were extinguished. The kneeling figures rose; and shadowily
we flitted forth, as from some gorgeous cave of grammarye.
Saturday, June 25. Lyons to Geneve. As this was our first experience
in the diligence line, we noticed particularly every peculiarity. A
diligence is a large, heavy, strongly-built, well-hung stage,
consisting of five distinct departments,--coupe, berline, omnibus,
banquette, and baggage top.
[Illustration: _of a diligence coach drawn by four horses._]
After setting up housekeeping in our berline, and putting all "to
rights," the whips cracked, bells jingled, and away we thundered by
the arrowy Rhone. I had had the idea that a diligence was a rickety,
slow-moulded antediluvian nondescript, toiling patiently along over
impassable roads at a snail's pace. Judge of my astonishment at
finding it a full-blooded, vigorous monster, of unscrupulous railway
momentum and imperturbable equipoise of mind.
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