re almost
always full. Pierrotin and his competitor were on the best of terms.
When the former started from Isle-Adam, the latter was returning from
Paris, and vice versa.

It is unnecessary to speak of the rival. Pierrotin possessed the
sympathies of his region; besides, he is the only one of the two who
appears in this veracious narrative. Let it suffice you to know that the
two coach proprietors lived under a good understanding, rivalled each
other loyally, and obtained customers by honorable proceedings. In Paris
they used, for economy's sake, the same yard, hotel, and stable, the
same coach-house, office, and clerk. This detail is alone sufficient to
show that Pierrotin and his competitor were, as the popular saying is,
"good dough." The hotel at which they put up in Paris, at the corner of
the rue d'Enghien, is still there, and is called the "Lion d'Argent."
The proprietor of the establishment, which from time immemorial had
lodged coachmen and coaches, drove himself for the great company of
Daumartin, which was so firmly established that its neighbors, the
Touchards, whose place of business was directly opposite, never dreamed
of starting a rival coach on the Daumartin line.

Though the departures for Isle-Adam professed to take place at a fixed
hour, Pierrotin and his co-rival practised an indulgence in that respect
which won for them the grateful affection of the country-people, and
also violent remonstrances on the part of strangers accustomed to
the regularity of the great lines of public conveyances. But the two
conductors of these vehicles, which were half diligence, half coucou,
were invariably defended by their regular customers. The afternoon
departure at four o'clock usually lagged on till half-past, while that
of the morning, fixed for eight o'clock, was seldom known to take
place before nine. In this respect, however, the system was elastic.
In summer, that golden period for the coaching business, the rule of
departure, rigorous toward strangers, was often relaxed for country
customers. This method not infrequently enabled Pierrotin to pocket
two fares for one place, if a countryman came early and wanted a seat
already booked and paid for by some "bird of passage" who was, unluckily
for himself, a little late. Such elasticity will certainly not commend
itself to purists in morality; but Pierrotin and his colleague justified
it on the varied grounds of "hard times," of their losses during the
winter