To his son and heir--the identical boy
who had brought the ring of bread up the mountain to the chalet where
we lunched. I gave something under two-pence, for guiding me across
two doubtful fields into a beaten track, and he expressed himself as
even more content than the maire. They both told me that it was
impossible to miss the way; but I imagine that I achieved that
impossibility, as I had to walk through two streams in the deepening
twilight, and the prevailing fear of water in that region is very
considerable.
The _auberge_ at Thorens to which the maire had recommended me, as being
the best, and kept by a personal friend of his, bore the sign _a la
Parfaite Union_. The entry was by the kitchen, and through the steam and
odour of onions, illuminated by one doubtful oil-lamp, I saw the
guest-room filled with people in Sunday dress, while two fiddles played
each its own tune in its own time. Nothing but the potent name of M. the
Maire of Aviernoz gained me even a hearing; and, for a bed, I was
obliged to stretch my intimacy with that exalted personage to the very
furthest bounds of truth.
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