midday
It was the future unfolding itself to the boy ; dark forests , wide rivers , strange cities and a new horizon : all the mystery of the coming years figured to him in that great plain stretching away to the greater mystery of heaven . To all this Cantapresto turned a snoring countenance . The lively air of the hills , the good fare of Donnaz , and the satisfaction , above all , of rolling on cushions over a road he had thought to trudge on foot , had lapped the abate in Capuan slumber . The midday halt aroused him . The travellers rested at an inn on the edge of the hills , and here Cantapresto proved to his charge that , as he phrased it , his belly had as short a memory for food as his heart for injuries . A flask of Asti put him in the talking mood , and as they drove on he regaled Odo with a lively picture of the life on which he was about to enter . `` You are going , '' said he , `` to one of the first cities of Europe ; one that has all the beauty and elegance of the French capital without its follies and excesses .