The CONDUCTOR, as he is called, OF ROADS AND BRIDGES was my principal
companion. He was generally intelligent, and could have spoken more
or less falsetto on any of the trite topics; but it was his specially
to have a generous taste in eating. This was what was most
indigenous in the man; it was here he was an artist; and I found in
his company what I had long suspected, that enthusiasm and special
knowledge are the great social qualities, and what they are about,
whether white sauce or Shakespeare's plays, an altogether secondary
question.
I used to accompany the Conductor on his professional rounds, and
grew to believe myself an expert in the business. I thought I could
make an entry in a stone-breaker's time-book, or order manure off the
wayside with any living engineer in France. Gondet was one of the
places we visited together; and Laussonne, where I met the
apothecary's father, was another. There, at Laussonne, George Sand
spent a day while she was gathering materials for the MARQUIS DE
VILLEMER; and I have spoken with an old man, who was then a child
running about the inn kitchen, and who still remembers her with a
sort of reverence.
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