" Something
engaging in this theory carried the most of us away.
The two Frenchmen, indeed, retired scoffing to their
bock, and Romney, being too poor to join the excursion
on his own resources, and too proud to borrow, melted
unobtrusively away. Meanwhile the remainder of the
company crowded the benches of a cab; the horse was
urged, as horses have to be, by an appeal to the pocket
of the driver; the train caught by the inside of a
minute; and in less than an hour and a half we were
breathing deep of the sweet air of the forest, and
stretching our legs up the hill from Fontainebleau
octroi, bound for Barbizon. That the leading members
of our party covered the distance in fifty-one minutes
and a half is, I believe, one of the historic landmarks
of the colony; but you will scarce be surprised to
learn that I was somewhat in the rear. Myner, a
comparatively philosophic Briton, kept me company in my
deliberate advance; the glory of the sun's going down,
the fall of the long shadows, the inimitable scent, and
the inspiration of the woods, attuned me more and more
to walk in a silence which progressively infected my
companion; and I remember that, when at last he spoke,
I was startled from a deep abstraction.
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