The man whom he was attempting to persuade was evidently of an
independent turn of mind, and said that as it would be an affair of
fifteen or sixteen hours at least, he would not go through so much
unless his proposed comrade were a true _bonhomme_; a difficulty which
the landlord set at rest by asseverations so ready and so
circumstantial, that I determined to take everything he might tell me,
on any subject, with many grains of allowance.
It was only natural to expect a night of horrors; but in this I was most
agreeably disappointed, and the few hours passed quietly enough till it
was time to get up. By morning light, the _salle-a-manger_ did so
bristle with squalor that the kitchen was made the breakfast-room;
though as that meal only lasted two minutes, and meant nothing beyond an
attempt to eat some of the bread I had been unable to eat the night
before, one place was much the same as another. It is generally believed
that coffee is to be obtained in perfection in France; but that belief
is not founded on experience of the provinces, and had long ceased to be
a part of my creed: nevertheless, with the idea that there is always
some redeeming-point in the darkest situation, I had hopes of the coffee
of Die, in spite of the appearance of the pan; and if these hopes had
been realised, the place might still have been tolerable.
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