hitect and the mother and son
entered the inn, and, after warming themselves hastily at the large
kitchen-fire, entered the dining-room and took seats at the table.

The mother contented herself with a cup of coffee with cream, and some
fruit. The boy, delighted to prove himself a man by his appetite at
least, boldly attacked the viands. The first few moments were, as usual,
employed in satisfying hunger. The watchmaker from Geneva was the first
to speak.

"Faith, citizen," said he (the word citizen was still used in public
places), "I tell you frankly I was not at all sorry to see daylight this
morning."

"Cannot monsieur sleep in a coach?" asked the doctor.

"Oh, yes, sir," replied the compatriot of Jean-Jacques; "on the
contrary, I usually sleep straight through the night. But anxiety was
stronger than fatigue this time."

"Were you afraid of upsetting?" asked the architect.

"No. I'm very lucky in that respect; it seems enough for me to be in a
coach to make it unupsettable. No, that wasn't it."

"What was it, then?" questioned the doctor.

"They say in Geneva that the roads in France are not safe."

"That's according to circumstances," said the architect.

"Ah! how's that?" inquired the watchmaker.

"Oh!" replied the architect; "if, for example, we were carrying
government money, we would surely be stopped, or rather we would have
been already."

"Do you think so?" queried the watchmaker.

"That has never failed. I don't know how those devils of Companions of
Jehu manage to keep so well posted; but they never miss an opportunity."

The doctor nodded affirmatively.

"Ah!" exclaimed the watchmaker, addressing the doctor; "do you think so,
too?"

"I do."

"And if you knew there was government money in the coach, would you be
so imprudent as to take passage in it?"

"I must admit," replied the doctor, "that I should think twice about
it."

"And you, sir?" said the questioner to the architect.

"Oh, I," replied the latter--"as I am on important business, I should
have started anyway."

"I am tempted," said the watchmaker "to take off my valise and my oases,
and wait for to-morrow's diligence, because my boxes are filled with
watches worth something like twenty thousand francs. We've been lucky so
far, but there's no use tempting Providence."

"Did you not hear these gentlemen say," remarked the lady, joining in
the conversation for the first time, "that we run the risk of being
stopped only