In the next carriage Mignon, in order to astonish Lucy, was making his sons recite a fable by La Fontaine.

Henri was prodigious at this exercise; he could spout you one without pause or hesitation.

But Maria Blond, at the head of the procession, was beginning to feel extremely bored.

She was tired of hoaxing that blockhead of a Tatan Nene with a story to the effect that the Parisian dairywomen were wont to fabricate eggs with a mixture of paste and saffron.

The distance was too great: were they never going to get to their destination?
And the question was transmitted from carriage to carriage and finally reached Nana, who, after questioning her driver, got up and shouted: "We've not got a quarter of an hour more to go.