"To San Miguel de Tucumán; then to Chili." "Alone?" "Oh no; my people are coming after me. And you?" "Oh, as to me it is different; I am nearly on my estate here." "Indeed?" "Ma foi, yes; only, you must understand, I do not intend to live forever in this country; if you like, I shall be happy to invite you to my house, from, which we are only about twenty miles distant." "What! Your house? You have a house here?" "Mon Dieu! Yes; it is necessary to come here to America to accomplish that miracle of becoming landowner. That is a good joke, is it not?" said he, laughing. "What do you say to my proposition? Does it please you?" The other hesitated a moment. "Decide, sir; chance, or, if you prefer it, Providence, which has brought us together so strangely, has perhaps some unknown plans concerning us. Do not let us oppose it." "Why joke on this subject. M. Gagnepain?" asked the other; "Although you are an artist, and consequently a man of strong mind, what you say is more true than you doubtless wish to avow." "Pardon; I had forgotten that you were an Oratorian. Well, will you retrace your route?" "I am not in a hurry; I shall arrive soon enough whither I am going. I shall have great pleasure in passing a few hours in your company." "Come, then, we will stretch ourselves on the grass in the shade of those magnificent palm trees, and, while our horses rest themselves, we will pass the great heat of the day in talking and waiting for your people." "Your offer is so cordial that I cannot refuse it." "Well spoken, my dear duke." "Silence," briskly interrupted he to whom this title was given; "my name is Dubois, and I am a naturalist; remember that, I beg." "Ah!" said the other, with slight astonishment; "As you like. Pass as Dubois; that name is as good as another." "Better for me at this time." The two travellers then regained the bank of the river, where, according to the plan they had agreed on, they unloosed the bridle of the horses, taking care to tie them by a strap of leather, for fear they should wander; and after having beaten the bushes with the barrels of their guns to frighten the reptiles, they stretched themselves on the fresh and tufted grass, under the protecting shade of a gigantic palm tree, giving a sigh of agreeable relief. The country, in the centre of which our travellers had met, was, according to all reports, far from meriting the epithet which one of the two had conferred on it; it was on the contrary, a beautiful country; the grand landscapes of it have always given rise, to the admiration of explorers--very rare, by the way--whom the love of science has induced to visit them under all their aspects. The Tucumán, where are passing at the present time the events of our history, is one of the most happily situated countries in South America.