We left the room at last. When Raymond had closed his door, he discovered that he had not put his diamond ring on his little finger, so he went back to repair that omission. We went downstairs; but on the second landing, he failed to find his opera in his pocket, and went back for that. When we arrived in the courtyard, he remembered that he had not brought his favorite songs; and as he might be asked to sing, I must wait while he went to fetch them. I registered a vow never to travel again with Monsieur Raymond. At last, about a quarter past eight, we entered the cabriolet; then he discovered that he had not his eyeglass; but I was inexorable: I lashed the horse and we started. It was dark, so that Raymond could not read me his opera; but to make up to me for the deprivation, he proposed to tell me the plot. For more than an hour he prosed away about a Spanish princess and an Arabian prince, her lover, while I thought of Madame de Marsan, whom I was not at all sorry to see again, and whom I was surprised that I had neglected so long. When we reached Saint-Denis it was half-past nine; and I swore at Raymond, whose dilatoriness and absurd affectations would make us arrive at Madame de Marsan's unconscionably late. "Have we much farther to go?" I asked my neighbor, as we left Saint-Denis behind. "Why, no; about three-fourths of a league only.--I was saying that my princess, having been rescued from the burning palace, swoons at the end of the second act.----" "You know the way, don't you?" "Yes, yes; drive on, I'll show you.--When the curtain rises for the third act, the princess is in her lover's camp, lying on a cannon.----" "Have you been to this country house before?" "Once; but that's enough for me; I have such an accurate memory!--The soldiers are resting on their pikes--or their muskets, for I am not quite sure whether pikes were in use under King Ferdinand; but it makes no difference. The prince, having no desire to sleep----" "I should say that we were told to go to the left." "No, no! straight ahead!--The prince, I say, is on his knees before the princess, who is still unconscious; and he sings her a superb air, _adagio_ in _D_ minor, to restore her.--I wrote the music, too. Can't you see the tableau in your mind's eye?" "I see that if you don't drop your _prince_ and _princess_ soon, we shall be in Montmorency, and that certainly isn't on our road. I'm too good-natured, to sit here and listen to your nonsense. Here--as you are so certain we're on the right road, just take the reins and drive." "Oh! I ask nothing better; I'll stake my head that we're not two hundred yards from Madame de Marsan's." "But I don't see any light." "Because it's too dark a night.--This infernal horse has a mouth like iron." "You worry him too much." "Ah! I see something.--Where are we, my man?" "Montmorency, monsieur," replied our groom. "Well! Monsieur Raymond, you want to see everything; you're a very clever man!"