looked very grave. Continuing our walk, we arrived at the
_Mares_.

"Goodness," said my companion, "how dark it is here,"--looking into each
hut that was shown him. "Misericorde! if I were to ensconce myself in
this leafy cabin, this gloomy sombre hole, I should fancy myself seated
at the bottom of a blacking-bottle--I respectfully decline the honour of
occupying the hut."

"Very well, let us proceed to another," we exclaimed. But the second
was pronounced more lugubrious and melancholy-looking than the first,
and the third not more agreeable than the preceding one.

"It is no longer a matter of doubt," said the Parisian; "you are a
family of owls. What! place myself in these holes, these mouse-traps, in
these tumuli of leaves, where the archfiend himself, habituated to every
kind of darkness, could not distinguish anything?--thank you, gentlemen.
As to you, you can see clear; but by the great telescope of the
observatory, if I were to get into one of these rustic ovens, I should
not in five minutes be able to distinguish the end of my nose--I should
not be able to find my way to my breeches-pocket."

"But, my dear sir," said I to him, when alone, for my two friends were
now snugly seated in the rejected huts, "you are very difficult to
please, and it becomes embarrassing, for these cabins are all alike;
when you have seen one you have seen a dozen. Now this, believe me, is a
capital one; come, seat yourself here."

"I am much obliged to you, not that one; for this pool of water in
particular has something very sinister about it; the spot feels raw, and
has an unpleasant wolfish air."

What was to be done? While debating thus, I remembered that at some
little distance from the place where we then were, stood two large
farms, Les Fermes des Amandiers, and that, at a distance of half a mile
beyond them, there was a magnificent _Mare_, in the style, it is true,
of _Mare_ No. 2, large and open, and yet it would be as useless to wait
for woodcocks there as it would be to hope to catch a trout in the
basins of Trafalgar-square. Such a spot seemed to me admirably
calculated for the banker; I resolved, therefore, to conduct him to it.

"If this hut does not please you," said I, "follow me, and quickly."

"Where are you going to take me?"

"Oh! do not alarm yourself, I have just thought of a place that will
suit you exactly: a charming spot, delightfully scented by a thicket of
honeysuckles; but you must be on the aler