Europe and elsewhere, by Mark Twain [pseud.] [with an appreciation by Brander Matthews and an introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine]

EUROPE AND ELSEWHERE
are always overcharged. Courier said it wouldn't
deceive unless I played myself for a deaf-and-dumb
Frenchman-which I did, and so the rooms were
only a franc and a half each. But the Admiral
must have let it out that I was only deaf and dumb
in French, for prices were raised in the bill this
morning.
4.10 P.M.-Left Port de Groslee.
4.50 P.M.-ChAteau of the Count Cassiloa-or
something like that-the Admiral's pronunciation
is elusive. Courier guesses the spelling at "Quintionat." I don't quite see the resemblance. This
courier's confidence in himself is a valuable talent.
He must be descended from the idiot who taught
our forefathers to spell tizzik with a ph and a th.
The river here is as still and smooth and nearly as
dead as a lake. The water is swirly, though, and
consequently makes uneasy steering.
River seems to draw together and greatly narrow
itself below the count's house. No doubt the current
will smarten up there.
Three new quarries along here. Dear me! how
little there is in the way of sight-seeing, when a
quarry is an event! Remarked upon with contentment.
Swept through the narrow canallike place with a
good current.
On the left-hand point below, bush-grown ruins
of an ancient convent (St. Alban's), picturesquely
situated on a low bluff. There is a higher and handsomer bluff a trifle lower down. How did they
overlook it? Those people generally went for the
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