But I am digressing; the peculiar manner of speaking which prevails at Vevey having led me from the main subject.  These people absolutely sing in their ordinary conversation, more especially the women.  In the simple expression of “Bon jour, madame” each alternate syllable is uttered on an octave higher than the preceding.  This is not a patois at all, but merely a vicious and ungraceful mode of utterance.  It prevails more among the women than among the men; and, as a matter of course, more among the women of the inferior, than among those of the superior classes.  Still it is more or less general.  To ears that are accustomed to the even, unemphatic, graceful enunciation of Paris, it is impossible to describe to you, in words, the ludicrous effect it produces.  We have frequently been compelled to turn away, in the shops, to avoid downright laughter.

There exists the same sensitiveness, on the subject of the modes of speech, between the French Swiss and their French neighbours, as is to be found between us and the English.  Many intelligent men here have laboured to convince me that the Genevese, in particular, speak purer French than even the Parisians.  I dare say a part of this pretension may be true, for a great people take great liberties with everything; but if America, with her fifteen millions, finds it difficult to maintain herself in such matters, even when in the right, against the influence of England, what can little Geneva look for, in such a dispute with France, but to be put down by sheer volubility.  She will be out-talked as a matter of course, clever as her citizens are.

On the subject of the prevalent opinion of Swiss cupidity, I have very little to say:  the practice of taking service as mercenaries in other countries, has probably given rise to the charge.  As is usually the case in countries where the means of obtaining a livelihood are not easy, the Swiss strike me as being more influenced by money than most of their neighbours, though scarcely more so than the common classes of France.  To a man who gains but twenty in a day, a sou is of more account than to him who gains forty.  I presume this is the whole amount of the matter.  I shall not deny, however, that the honorarium was usually more in view, in a transaction with a Swiss, than in a transaction with a Frenchman, though I think the first the most to be depended on.  Notwithstanding one or two instances of roguery that I have encountered, I would as soon depend on a Swiss, a clear bargain having been made, as on any other man I know.

LETTER XXVII.

Departure from Vevey.—­Passage down the Lake.—­Arrival at Geneva.—­Purchase of Jewellery.—­Leave Geneva.—­Ascent of the Jura.—­Alpine Views.—­Rudeness at the Custom-house.—­Smuggling.—­A Smuggler detected.—­The second Custom-house.—­Final View of Mont Blanc.—­Re-enter France.—­Our luck at the Post-house in Dole.—­A Scotch Traveller.—­Nationality of the Scotch.—­Road towards Troyes.—­Source of the Seine.