Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 153: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

126 ALFRED ; OR ADVENTURES ‘‘ And wherefore?” asked Pierre, raising himself on one arm from the sofa. | ‘‘T am afraid of being recaptured; and I have such a horror of the galleys,” returned De Rosann, inwardly ashamed cf so paltry an evasion. ‘‘ Well, if you be determined, I shall not oppose your wishes,” said Belle-Rose. ‘‘ But when do you intend to embark ?” ‘‘T am going to Havre this very afternoon—” ‘T will accompany you thither, if you have no objection,” interrupted Belle-Rose, after a moment’s thought; ‘and when I have seen you safely on board the packet, I shall step into the diligence, and return to my favourite city, Paris.” ‘¢So far from entertaining the slightest repugnance, I shall be delighted with your society as far as Havre,” said Alfred, laying a particular stress upon the four last words. Belle-Rose did not appear to notice that peculiar emphasis, nor did he endeavour to dissuade our hero from his purposes, but endeavoured to change the conversation. As it wanted at least two hours till dinner-time, they took advantage of the interval, and walked out into the town to purchase a few necessaries for their journey. Belle-Rose himself volunteered to buy a couple of trunks or portmanteaus, and entered a shop for that purpose, while De Rosann remained in the street, reading a large bill which was posted against a wall, and which gave him information relative to the hours of arrival and departure of the steam-packets which traversed the ocean between Havre and Southampton. On their return to the hotel, the landlord informed our hero and his companion, ‘* That the cook had exquisitely attended to their orders, that the market had bountifully supphed the larder, and that they might confidently rely upon instantaneously being served with an unexceptionably toothsome repast.” ‘‘The trunk-maker adjoining will presently send two small portmanteaus to the inn,” said Belle-Rose, addressing the host ; ‘will you have the goodness to convey one to each of our chambers.” | ‘¢ TInfallibly,” answered the landlord, opening the parlour-door for his waiter, who appeared at the moment with the dinner. A Frenchman is naturally of a gay and lively disposition. In- stead of the sober, phlegmatic, and even temperament of the Englishman, he has either an unbridled flow of spirits, or a deep depression. But the former generally prevails; and when he is en train de fuire mille folies,* there is not a happier being in the world. His eyes sparkle with a peculiar vivacity ; his conversa- tion, though light and superficial, is replete with natural wit, and he feels himself independent of all the world. Such was now the case with De Rosann. He felt certain of being able to elude the vigilance of the Gendarmes, armed as he was with a passport, in which the most scrupulous could not * Literally, ‘In the humour to commit a thousand follies.” The expression is synonymous with “‘ up to anything,” or “ready for all kinds of fun.” ECOMMICLMOOOKSaC©)