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Book, page 71 / 76 M. Charnot pulled out his watch. "Seven minutes past eight. What time does the last train start, Jeanne?" "At ten minutes to eight." "Confusion! we are stranded in Desio! The mere thought of passing the night in that inn gives me the creeps. I see no way out of it unless Monsieur Mouillard can get us one of the Count's state coaches. There isn't a carriage to be got in this infernal village!" "There is mine, Monsieur, which luckily holds four, and is quite at your service." "Upon my word, I am very much obliged to you. The drive by moonlight will be quite romantic." He drew near to Jeanne and whispered in her ear: "Are you sure you've wraps enough? a shawl, or a cape, or some kind of pelisse?" She gave a merry nod of assent. "Don't worry yourself, father; I am prepared for all emergencies." At half-past eight we left Desio together, and I silently blessed the host of the Albergo dell' Agnello, who had assured me that the carriage road was "so much more picturesque." I found it so, indeed. M. Charnot and Jeanne faced the horses. I sat opposite to M. Charnot, who was in the best of spirits after all the medals he had seen. Comfortably settled in the cushions, careless of the accidents of the road, with graphic and untiring forefinger, he undertook to describe his travels in Greece, whither he had been sent on some learned enterprise by the Minister of Education, and had carried an imagination already prepossessed and dazzled with Homeric visions. He told his story well and with detail, combining the recollections of the scholar with the impressions of an artist. The pediment of the Parthenon, the oleanders
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