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diff --git a/22022.txt b/22022.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..10a806c --- /dev/null +++ b/22022.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5286 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shawl-Straps, by Louisa M. Alcott + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Shawl-Straps + A Second Series of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag + +Author: Louisa M. Alcott + +Release Date: July 9, 2007 [EBook #22022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAWL-STRAPS *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +SHAWL-STRAPS. + +A Second Series + +OF + +AUNT JO'S SCRAP-BAG. + +BY + +LOUISA M. ALCOTT, + +AUTHOR OF +'LITTLE WOMEN,' 'AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL,' 'LITTLE MEN,' +'HOSPITAL SKETCHES.' + +LONDON: +SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY +_LIMITED_, +St. Dunstan's House, +FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C. + +1895. + +_All rights reserved._ + + +_LOW'S STANDARD SERIES OF BOOKS BY POPULAR WRITERS._ + +Small crown 8vo. cloth gilt, 2_s._; gilt edges, 2_s._ 6_d._ each + + 1. ALCOTT, L. M. Little Men. + 2. WHITNEY, Mrs. Hitherto. + 3. SAMUELS. Forecastle to Cabin. Illustrated. + 4. ROBINSON, P. In my Indian Garden. + 5. ALCOTT, L. M. Little Women and Little Women Wedded. + 6. WHITNEY, Mrs. We Girls. + 7. ---- The other Girls: a Sequel. + 8. ALDEN, W. L. Jimmy Brown. + 9. ALCOTT, L. M. Under the Lilacs. Illustrated. +10. ---- Jimmy's Cruise. +11. ROBINSON, PHIL. Under the Punkah. +12. ALCOTT, L. M. An Old-Fashioned Girl. +13. ---- A Rose in Bloom. +14. ---- Eight Cousins. Illustrated. +15. ---- Jack and Jill. +16. ---- Lulu's Library. Illustrated. +17. ---- Silver Pitchers. +18. ---- Work and Beginning Again. +19. WHITNEY, Mrs. Leslie Goldthwaite. +20. ---- Faith Gartney's Girlhood. +21. ---- Real Folks. +22. STOWE, Mrs. Dred. +23. ---- My Wife and I. +24. DE WITT, Madame. An Only Sister. +25. ALCOTT, L. M. Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag. +26. ---- Shawl Straps. +27. STOWE, Mrs. Ghost in the Mill. +28. BUNYAN, JOHN. Pilgrim's Progress (Extra volume), gilt, 2_s._ +29. STOWE, Mrs. We and Our Neighbours. +30. SAINTINE. Picciola. +31. HOLM, SAXE. Draxy Miller's Dowry. +32. SANDEAU, JULES. Seagull Rock. +33. WARNER, C. D. In the Wilderness. +34. ---- My Summer in a Garden. +35. ALCOTT, L. M. Spinning-wheel Stories. +36. ALDEN, W. L. Trying to find Europe. +37. WHITNEY, Mrs. The Gayworthys. +38. TOOLEY, Mrs. Life of Mrs. Stowe. +39. ROE, E. P. Nature's Serial Story. +40. ALCOTT. Recollections. +41. STOWE, H. B. Minister's Wooing. + +* * + * A New Illustrated List of Books for Boys and Girls, +with Portraits of Celebrated Authors, sent post free on application. + + +London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, LTD., +St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +There is a sort of fate about writing books of travel which it is +impossible to escape. It is vain to declare that no inducement will +bribe one to do it, that there is nothing new to tell, and that nobody +wants to read the worn-out story: sooner or later the deed is done, and +not till the book is safely shelved does peace descend upon the victim +of this mysterious doom. + +The only way in which this affliction may be lightened to a +long-suffering public is to make the work as cheerful and as short as +possible. With this hope the undersigned bore has abstained from giving +the dimensions of any church, the population of any city, or description +of famous places, as far as in her lay; but confined herself to the +personal haps and mishaps, adventures and experiences, of her wanderers. + +To explain the undue prominence given to Miss Lavinia, it should be +stated that she is an old and intimate friend of the compiler of this +frivolous work; and therefore her views on all subjects, though less +valuable, were easier to obtain than those of the younger and more +interesting shawl-strappists. + + L. M. A. +_November 1872._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + I. OFF 1 + + II. BRITTANY 24 + +III. FRANCE 92 + + IV. SWITZERLAND 175 + + V. ITALY 205 + + VI. LONDON 265 + + + + +SHAWL-STRAPS. + + + + +I. + +_OFF._ + + +'On the first day of February we three will sail from Boston for +Messina, in the little fruit-ship "Wasp." We shall probably be a month +going, unless we cross in a gale as I did, splitting sails every night, +and standing on our heads most of the way,' said Amanda, folding up her +maps with an air of calm decision. + +'Hurrah! what fun!' cried Matilda, waving a half-finished dressing-case +over her head. + +But Lavinia, with one sepulchral groan, fell flat upon her bed, and lay +there, dumb with the horrors of such a voyage. + +'Just the thing for you, my poor old dear. Think of the balmy airs of +Sicily, the oranges, the flowers. Then a delicious month or two at +Sorrento, with no east winds, no slush, no spring cleaning. We shall be +as merry as grigs, and get as buxom as dairy-maids in a month,' said the +sprightly Amanda. + +'You promised to go, and if you back out we are lost, for we _must_ have +a duenna. You can lie round in Europe just as well as here, and I have +no doubt it will do you a world of good,' added Matilda. + +'I shall keep my word; but you will bury me in the Atlantic, so make up +your minds to it. Do you suppose that I, a poor, used-up old invalid, +who can't look at a sail-boat without a qualm, can survive thirty days +of standing on my head, and thirty nights of sail-splitting, as we go +slamming and lurching across two or three awful oceans?' demanded +Lavinia, with the energy of despair. + +Before anyone could reply, Amanda's little Mercury appeared with a note. + +'The "Wasp" will _not_ take passengers, and no other fruit-ship sails +this spring,' read Amanda. + +'Oh dear!' sighed Matilda. + +'Saved!' cried Lavinia. + +'Be calm: we shall go, sooner or later, if I buy a ship and sail her +myself;' with which indomitable remark Amanda went forth to grapple with +and conquer untoward circumstances. + +A month of plans, vicissitudes, and suspense followed, during which +Amanda strove manfully; Matilda suffered agonies of hope and fear; and +Lavinia remained a passive shuttlecock, waiting to be tossed wherever +Fate's battledore chose to send her. + +'Exactly two weeks from to-day, we sail with a party of friends in the +French steamer "Lafayette," from New York for Brest. Will you be ready?' +demanded Amanda, after a protracted wrestle with aforesaid adverse +circumstances. + +'But that is exactly what we didn't mean to do. It's expensive and +fashionable; France and not Italy, north and not south.' + +'That's because I'm in the party. If you take a Jonah nothing will go +well. Leave me behind, and you will have a charming trip,' said Lavinia, +who had an oyster-like objection to being torn from her bed. + +'No matter, we are going, live or die, sink or swim; and I shall expect +to meet you, all booted and spurred and fit for the fight, April +first,' said the unwavering Amanda. + +'A most appropriate day for three lone women to start off on a +wild-goose chase after health and pleasure,' groaned Lavinia from among +her pillows. + +'Very well, then; I leave you now, and shall expect to meet on the +appointed day?' + +'If I'm spared,' answered the sufferer. + +'I'll bring her, never fear,' added the sanguine Mat, as she rattled the +trays out of an immense trunk. + +How they ever did it no one knows; but in a week everything was ready, +and the sisters had nothing left to do but to sit and receive the +presents that showered upon them from all quarters. How kind everyone +was, to be sure! Six fine dressing-cases arrived, and were hung upon the +walls; four smelling-bottles--one for each nostril; bed-socks, +rigolettes, afghans, lunch-baskets, pocket-flasks, guide-books, +needle-cases, bouquets in stacks, and a great cake with their names on +top in red and blue letters three inches long. + +Friendly fingers sewed for them; even the gentlemen of the house--and +there were eight--had a 'bee,' and hemmed handkerchiefs for Mat, marked +towels; and one noble being actually took off his coat and packed the +trunks in layers of mosaic-work wonderful to behold. A supper celebrated +the last evening; and even the doleful Lavinia, touched by such +kindness, emerged from her slough of despond and electrified the ball by +dancing a jig with great spirit and grace. + +Devoted beings were up at dawn to share the early breakfast, lug trunks, +fly up and down with last messages, cheer heartily as the carriage +drove off, and then adjourn _en masse_ to the station, there to shake +hands all round once more, and wave and wring handkerchiefs as the train +at last bore the jocund Mat and the resigned Lavinia toward the +trysting-place and Amanda. + +All along the route more friends kept bursting into the cars as they +stopped at different places; more gifts, more hand-shakes and kisses, +more good wishes and kind prophecies, till at last in a chaos of smiles, +tears, smelling-bottles, luncheon, cloaks, books, and foot-warmers, the +travellers left the last friendly face behind and steamed away to New +York. + +'How de-licious this is!' cried the untravelled Matilda, as they stepped +upon the deck of the 'Lafayette,' and she sniffed the shippy fragrance +that caused Lavinia to gasp and answer darkly,-- + +'Wait till to-morrow.' + +While Mat surveyed the steamer under the care of Devoted Being No. 10, +who appeared to see them off, Lavinia arranged the stateroom, stowing +away all useless gear and laying forth dressing-gowns, slippers, +pocket-handkerchiefs, with an anguished smile. _She_ had crossed the +ocean twice, and was a wiser, sadder woman for it. At eight she turned +in, and ten minutes later Amanda came aboard with a flock of gay +friends. But no temptations of the flesh could lure the wary spinster +from her den; for the night was rough and cold, and the steamer a Babel +of confusion. + +'It's perfectly delightful! I wish you'd been there, Livy. We had +supper, and songs, and funny stories, and all sorts of larks. There are +quantities of nice people aboard, and we shall have a perfectly splendid +trip. I shall be up bright and early, put on my scarlet stockings, my +new boots, and pretty sea-suit, and go in for a jolly day,' said the +ardent Matilda, as she came skipping down at midnight and fell asleep +full of rosy visions of the joys of a + + + Life on the ocean wave. + + +'Deluded child!' sighed Lavinia, closing her dizzy eyes upon the swaying +garments on the wall, and feebly wishing she had hung herself along with +them. + +In the gray dawn she was awakened by sounds of woe, and peering forth +beheld the festive Matilda with one red stocking on and one off, her +blonde locks wildly dishevelled, her face of a pale green, and her hands +clasping lemons, cologne, and salts, as she lay with her brow upon the +cool marble of the toilet-table. + +'How do you like it, dear?' asked the unfeeling Lavinia. + +'Oh, what is it? I feel as if I was dying. If somebody would only stop +the swing _one_ minute. Is it sea-sickness? It's awful, but it will do +me good. Oh, yes! I hope so. I've tried everything, and feel worse and +worse. Hold me! save me! Oh, I wish I hadn't come!' + +'Shipmates ahoy! how are you, my loves?' and Amanda appeared, rosy, +calm, and gay, with her pea-jacket on, skirts close reefed, hat well to +windward, and everything taut and ship-shape; for she was a fine sailor, +and never missed a meal. + +Wails greeted her, and faint inquiries as to the state of things in the +upper world. + +'Blowing a gale; rain, hail, and snow,--very dirty weather; and we are +flying off the coast in fine style,' was the cheerful reply. + +'Have we split any sails?' asked Lavinia, not daring to open her eyes. + +'Dozens, I dare say. Shipping seas every five minutes. All the +passengers ill but me, and every prospect of a north-easter all the way +over,' continued the lively Amanda, lurching briskly about the passage +with her hands in her pockets. + +Matilda dropped her lemons and her bottles to wring her hands, and +Lavinia softly murmured-- + + + 'Lord, what fools we mortals be, + That we ever go to sea!' + + +'Breakfast, ladies?' cried the pretty French stewardess, prancing in +with tea-cups, bowls of gruel, and piles of toast balanced in some +miraculous manner all over her arms. + +'Oh, take it away! I shall never eat again,' moaned Matilda, clinging +frantically to the marble, as the water-pitcher went down the middle +with a hair-brush, and all the boots and shoes had a grand promenade +round the room. + +'Don't speak to me; don't look at me; don't even _think_ of me for three +days at least. Go and enjoy yourself, and leave us to our doom;' with +which tragical remark Lavinia drew her curtains, and was seen no more. + +Great heavens, what a week that was! Rain, wind, fog; creak, pitch, +toss; noise, smells, cold. Broken sleep by day, woe in every variety by +night; food and drink a delusion and a snare; society an affliction; +life a burden; death a far-off blessing not to be had at any price. +Slowly, slowly the victims emerge from the lower depths of gloom, feebly +smile, faintly joke, pick fearfully but wistfully at once-rejected +dishes; talk about getting up, but don't do it; read a little, look at +their sallow countenances in hand-glasses, and speculate upon the good +effects of travel upon the constitution. Then they suddenly become +daring, gay, and social; rise, adorn themselves, pervade the cabins, +sniff the odours of engine and kitchen without qualms, play games, go to +table; and, just as the voyage is over, begin to enjoy it. + +Alas for poor Lavinia! no such resurrection was possible for her. Long +after Mat had bravely donned the scarlet hose, cocked up her beaver and +gone forth to festive scenes, her shipmate remained below in chrysalis +state, fed by faithful Marie, visited by the ever-cheerful Amanda, and +enlivened by notes and messages from fellow-sufferers in far-off cells. + +Mr. and Mrs. Harry Walmars, jun., called, and had private theatricals in +the passage. Dried-ginger parties were held about the invalid's berth, +poems were composed, and conundrums circulated. A little newspaper was +concocted, replete with wit and spirit, by these secluded ladies, and +called the 'Sherald,' to distinguish it from the 'Herald,' got up by +sundry gentlemen whose shining hours were devoted to flirtation, cards, +and wine. + +'Perfect gentlemen, I assure you, my dear; for, drunk or sober, they +wear yellow kids from morning till night, smoke the best cigars, and +dance divinely,' as Mrs. Twaddle said, sitting erect in the saloon, +shrouded in fur and velvet, with five diamond-rings well displayed, as +she recounted the diseases she had enjoyed, and did the honours of a +remarkable work-basket, containing eight different sorts of scissors. + +'We shall be in to-morrow, so you'd better be digging up the treasures +you have buried, you old magpie,' said Mat, appearing to the pensive +Livy on the eleventh day. + +'The sun is out; come on deck, and help us get up the last edition of +our paper. How will this do? Query--If steamers are named the "Asia," +the "Russia," and the "Scotia," why not call one the "Nausea?"' added +Amanda, popping her head into the den. Lavinia threw a pillow at her, +but the undaunted joker continued-- + +'Also this: Financial--This being a feminine paper, gold is no longer at +Pa, but at Ma.' + +'Good! Add this: Argument in favour of the Superiority of Women--The +sluggard was _not_ told to go to his uncle.' + +'Thank you,' and Amanda departed to twine with her forty-third bosom +friend, while Lavinia disinterred, from holes and corners of her berth, +money, nuts, and raisins; books, biscuits, and literary efforts much the +worse for deluges of soap and daubs of butter. + +The cry of 'Land!' on the morrow caused passengers unseen before to +appear like worms after a shower; all heroically did up their back hair, +put on their best suits, and walked forth with the delusive hope that no +one would know how ill they had been. + +A French Marquis, with a sickly little son, whose diet of fried potatoes +and sour wine accounted for his having the temper of a young fiend, +appeared, and were made much of by dear, title-loving Americans. + +A Spanish opera-singer, stout, saffron-coloured, and imperious, likewise +emerged from obscurity, with a meek little husband, who waited on her +like a servant, and a big bald parrot, who swore like a trooper. + +Several nuns languished in corners of the saloon, surveying the +vanities of life with interest, and telling their beads devoutly when +they saw anyone looking at them. + +A mysterious lady in green velvet with many diamonds, and a shabby, +speechless companion, sailed about the ship, regardless of the rumours +told of her--deserted husbands, stolen jewellery, lovers waiting on the +other side, and many equally pleasant little tales. + +The gentlemen with orange gloves and copper-coloured noses got +themselves up in the most superb style, though few were going to land at +Brest, and took tender farewells of such ladies as did, each professing +desolation and despair at the termination of a twelve days' flirtation. + +'I am not fond of dirt, but I could kneel down and kiss this mud, so +grateful am I to feel solid ground under my feet, after leading the +life of a fly for so long,' said Lavinia with emotion, as the three +trudged up the wharf at Brest into a sort of barn which served for a +custom-house. + +'Now let each sit upon her luggage and clamour till some one comes and +examines it, else it will get whisked away heaven only knows where,' +ordered Amanda, who was the leader in right of her knowledge of tongues. + +Each perched accordingly on her one big trunk, and tried to 'clamour.' +But nothing came of it save loss of time and temper, for no one paid the +slightest heed to them; and it was maddening to see trunk after trunk +passed and sent off, followed by its rejoicing owner. Especially hard to +bear was the sight of the green-velvet sinner, who, with a smile or two, +won the sternest official to pass her five trunks without turning a +key, and sailed away with a scornful glance at the virtuous Three +planted on their property and feebly beckoning for help. + +'I shall bear this no longer. Mat, sit there and guard the small things, +while you and I, Livy, charge boldly among these imbeciles and drag them +to their duty;' and Amanda marched away to clutch a cockaded victim by +the shoulder with an awe-inspiring countenance. + +Lavinia picked out a feeble, gray officer, and dogged him like an +Indian, smiling affably, and pointing to her luggage with a persistent +mildness that nearly drove the poor man mad. + +No matter where he went, or what he did; no matter how thick the crowd +about him, or how loud the din; still, like a relentless ghost, that +mild old lady was ever at his side, mutely pointing and affably +smiling. Of course he gave in, lifted one tray, saw much flannel, nearly +blew his venerable nose off sniffing at one suspicious bottle, and +slamming down the lid, scrawled a mysterious cross, bowed and fled. + +Proudly returning to Amanda, the victorious one found her friend in a +high state of indignation; for no officer there would touch her trunk +because some American Express had put little leaden stamps here and +there for some unknown purpose. Not even in her best French could the +irate lady make the thick-headed men understand that it was not a high +crime against the nation to undo a strap till some superior officer +arrived to take the responsibility of so rash a step. + +If they had comprehended the dire threats, the personal remarks, and +unmitigated scorn of those three fair travellers, the blue-coated +imbeciles would have been reduced to submission. Fortunately the great +man came in time to save them from utter rout; for the ladies were just +trying to decide whether to go and leave the luggage to its fate, or to +haul it forth and depart _vi et armis_, when a stout old party came, +saw, said, 'It is nothing; pass the trunk; a thousand pardons, Madame,' +and peace was restored. + +Instantly the porters, who till then had stood back, eyeing the +innocent, black ark, as if it was an infernal machine liable to explode +at a touch, threw themselves upon it, bore it forth, and heaving it atop +of an omnibus, returned to demand vast sums for having waited so long. + +Then was Amanda sublime; then did her comrades for the first time learn +the magnitude of her powers, and realise the treasure they possessed. +Stowing Matilda and the smaller traps in the bus, and saying to Lavinia, +'Stand by me,' this dauntless maid faced one dozen blue-bloused, +black-bearded, vociferous, demonstrative Frenchmen; and, calmly offering +the proper sum, refused to add one sou more. + +Vainly the drivers perjured themselves in behalf of the porters; vainly +the guard looked on, with imposing uniforms, and impertinent +observations; vainly Mat cried imploringly, 'Pay anything, and let us +get off before there is a mob'--still the indomitable Amanda held forth +the honest franc; and, when no one would take it, laid it on the post, +and entering the omnibus, drove calmly away. + +'What should we do without you?' sighed Lavinia, with fervent gratitude. + +'Be cheated right and left, and never know it, dear,' responded Amanda, +preparing for another fight with the omnibus-driver. + +And she had it; for, unwarned by the fate of the porters, this +short-sighted man insisted on carrying the ladies to a dirty little +hotel to dine, though expressly ordered to go at once to the station. +Nothing would induce them to alight, though the landlord came out in +person and begged them to do so; and, after a protracted struggle and a +drive all over the town, they finally reached the depot. + +Here another demand for double fare was promptly quenched by an appeal +to the _chef de station_, who, finding that Mademoiselle was wide awake, +crushed the driver and saw justice done. + +Exhausted but triumphant, the three at length found themselves rolling +slowly towards Morlaix through a green and blooming country, so unlike +the New England they had left behind, that they rejoiced like +butterflies in the sunshine. + + + + +II. + +_BRITTANY._ + + +After a late dinner, at which their appetites were pretty effectually +taken away by seeing dishes of snails passed round and eaten like nuts, +with large pins to pick out the squirming meat; a night's rest somewhat +disturbed by the incessant clatter of _sabots_ in the market-place, and +a breakfast rendered merry by being served by a _garcon_ whom Dickens +would have immortalised, our travellers went on to Caulnes-Dinan. + +Here began their adventures, properly speaking. They were obliged to +drive fourteen miles to Dinan in a ram-shackle carriage drawn by three +fierce little horses, with their tails done up in braided chignons, and +driven by a humpback. This elegant equipage was likewise occupied by a +sleepy old priest, who smoked his pipe without stopping the whole way; +also by a large, loquacious, beery man, who talked incessantly, +informing the company that he was a friend of Victor Hugo, a child of +nature aged sixty, and obliged to drink much ale because it went to his +head and gave him commercial ideas. + +If it had given him no others it would have done well; but, after each +draught, and he took many, this child of nature became so friendly that +even the free and easy Americans were abashed. Matilda quailed before +the languishing glances he gave her, and tied her head up like a bundle +in a thick veil. The scandalised Lavinia, informing him that she did +not understand French, assumed the demeanour of a griffin, and glared +stonily into space, when she was not dislocating her neck trying to see +if the top-heavy luggage had not tumbled off behind. + +Poor Amanda was thus left a prey to the beery one; for, having at first +courteously responded to his paternal remarks and expressed an interest +in the state of France, she could not drop the conversation all at once, +even when the friend of Victor Hugo became so disagreeable that it is to +be hoped the poet has not many such. He recited poems, he sung songs, he +made tender confidences, and finished by pressing the hand of +Mademoiselle to his lips. On being told that such demonstrations were +not permitted to strangers in America, he beat his breast and cried +out, 'My God, so beautiful and so cold! You do not comprehend that I am +but a child. Pardon, and smile again I conjure you.' + +But Mademoiselle would not smile; and, folding her hands in her cloak, +appeared to slumber. Whereat the gray-headed infant groaned +pathetically, cast his eyes heavenward, and drank more ale, muttering to +himself, and shaking his head as if his emotions could not be entirely +suppressed. + +These proceedings caused Lavinia to keep her eye on him, being prepared +for any outbreak, from a bullet all round to proposals to both her +charges at once. + +With this smouldering bomb-shell inside, and the firm conviction that +one if not all the trunks were lying in the dust some miles behind, it +may be inferred that duenna Livy did not enjoy that break-neck drive, +lurching and bumping up hill and down, with nothing between them and +destruction apparently but the little humpback, who drove recklessly. + +In this style they rattled up to the Porte de Brest, feeling that they +had reached Dinan 'only by the grace of God,' as the beery man expressed +it, when he bowed and vanished, still oppressed with the gloomy +discovery that American women did not appreciate him. + +While Amanda made inquiries at an office, and Matilda had raptures over +the massive archway crowned with yellow flowers, Lavinia was edified by +a new example of woman's right to labour. + +Close by was a clean, rosy old woman, whose unusual occupation attracted +our spinster's attention. Whisking off the wheels of a _diligence_, the +old lady greased them one by one, and put them on again with the skill +and speed of a regular blacksmith, and then began to pile many parcels +into a _char_ apparently waiting for them. + +She was a brisk, cheery old soul, with the colour of a winter-apple in +her face, plenty of fire in her quick black eyes, and a mouthful of fine +teeth, though she must have been sixty. She was dressed in the costume +of the place: a linen cap with several sharp gables to it, a gay +kerchief over her shoulders, a blue woollen gown short enough to display +a pair of sturdy feet and legs in neat shoes with bunches of ribbons on +the instep and black hose. A gray apron, with pockets and a bib, +finished her off; making a very sensible as well as picturesque costume. + +She was still hard at it when a big boy appeared, and began to heave the +trunks into another _char_; but gave out at the second, which was +large. Instantly the brisk old woman put him aside, hoisted in the big +boxes without help, and, catching up the shafts of the heavily laden +cart, trotted away with it at a pace which caused the Americans (who +prided themselves on their muscle) to stare after her in blank +amazement. + +When next seen she was toiling up a steep street, still ahead of the +lazy boy, who slowly followed with the lighter load. It did not suit +Lavinia's ideas of the fitness of things to have an old woman trundle +three heavy trunks while she herself carried nothing but a parasol, and +she would certainly have lent a hand if the vigorous creature had not +gone at such a pace that it was impossible to overtake her till she +backed her cart up before a door in most scientific style, and with a +bow, a smile, and a courteous wave of the hand, informed them that +'here the ladies would behold the excellent Madame C.' + +They did behold and also receive a most cordial welcome from the good +lady, who not only embraced them with effusion, but turned her house +upside down for their accommodation, merely because they came +recommended to her hospitality by a former lodger who had won her kind +old heart. + +While she purred over them, the luggage was being bumped upstairs, the +old woman shouldering trunk after trunk, and trudging up two steep +flights in the most marvellous way. But best of all was her surprise and +gratitude on receiving a larger fee than usual, for the ladies were much +interested in this dear old Hercules in a cap of seven gables. + +When she had blessed them all round, and trotted briskly away with her +carts, Madame C. informed the new-comers that the worthy soul was a +widow with many children, whom she brought up excellently, supporting +them by acting as porter at the hotel. Her strength was wonderful, and +she was very proud of it--finding no work too hard, yet always neat, +cheery, and active; asking no help, and literally earning her daily +bread by the sweat of her brow. The ladies often saw her afterward, +always trotting and tugging, smiling and content, as if some unseen +hands kept well greased the wheels of her own diligence, which carried +such a heavy load and never broke down. + +Miss Lavinia being interested in Woman's Rights and Wrongs, was much +impressed by the new revelations of the capabilities of her sex, and +soon ceased to be surprised at any demonstration of feminine strength, +skill, and independence, for everywhere the women took the lead. + +They not only kept house, reared children, and knit every imaginable +garment the human frame can wear, but kept the shops and the markets, +tilled the gardens, cleaned the streets, and bought and sold cattle, +leaving the men free to enjoy the only pursuits they seemed inclined to +follow--breaking horses, mending roads, and getting drunk. + +The markets seemed entirely in the hands of the women, and lively scenes +they presented to unaccustomed eyes, especially the pig-market, held +every week, in the square before Madame C.'s house. At dawn the +squealing began, and was kept up till sunset. The carts came in from all +the neighbouring hamlets, with tubs full of infant pigs, over which the +women watched with maternal care till they were safely deposited among +the rows of tubs that stood along the walk facing Anne of Bretaigne's +grey old tower, and the pleasant promenade which was once the _fosse_ +about the city walls. + +Here Madame would seat herself and knit briskly till a purchaser +applied, when she would drop her work, dive among the pink innocents, +and hold one up by its unhappy leg, undisturbed by its doleful cries, +while she settled its price with a blue-gowned, white-capped neighbour +as sharp-witted and shrill-tongued as herself. If the bargain was +struck, they slapped their hands together in a peculiar way, and the new +owner clapped her purchase into a meal-bag, slung it over her shoulder, +and departed with her squirming, squealing treasure as calmly as a +Boston lady with a satchel full of ribbons and gloves. + +More mature pigs came to market on their own legs, and very long, +feeble legs they were, for a more unsightly beast than a Breton pig was +never seen out of a toy Noah's ark. Tall, thin, high-backed, and +sharp-nosed, these porcine victims tottered to their doom, with dismal +wailings, and not a vestige of spirit till the trials and excitement of +the day goaded them to rebellion, when their antics furnished fun for +the public. Miss Livy observed that the women could manage the pigs when +men failed entirely. The latter hustled, lugged, or lashed, unmercifully +and unsuccessfully; the former, with that fine tact which helps them to +lead nobler animals than pigs, would soothe, sympathise, coax, and +gently beguile the poor beasts, or devise ways of mitigating their +bewilderment and woe, which did honour to the sex, and triumphantly +illustrated the power of moral suasion. + +One amiable lady, who had purchased two small pigs and a coop full of +fowls, attempted to carry them all on one donkey. But the piggies +rebelled lustily in the bags, the ducks remonstrated against their +unquiet neighbours, and the donkey indignantly refused to stir a step +till the unseemly uproar was calmed. But the Bretonne was equal to the +occasion; for, after a pause of meditation, she solved the problem by +tying the bags round the necks of the pigs, so that they could enjoy the +prospect. This appeased them at once, and produced a general lull; for +when the pigs stopped squealing, the ducks stopped quacking, the donkey +ceased his bray, and the party moved on in dignified silence, with the +youthful pigs, one black, one white, serenely regarding life from their +bags. + +Another time, a woman leading a newly-bought cow came through the +square, where the noise alarmed the beast so much that she became +unruly, and pranced in a most dangerous manner. Miss Livy hung out of +the window, breathless with interest, and ready to fly with brandy and +bandages at a minute's notice, for it seemed inevitable that the woman +would be tossed up among the lindens before the cow was conquered. The +few men who were lounging about stood with their hands in their pockets, +watching the struggle without offering to help, till the cow scooped the +lady up on her horns, ready for a toss. Livy shrieked, but Madame just +held on, kicking so vigorously that the cow was glad to set her down, +when, instead of fainting, she coolly informed the men, who, seeing her +danger, had approached, that she 'could arrange her cow for herself, and +did not want any help,' which she proved by tying a big blue +handkerchief over the animal's eyes, producing instant docility, and +then she was led away by her flushed but triumphant mistress, who calmly +settled her cap, and took a pinch of snuff to refresh herself, after a +scuffle which would have annihilated most women. + +When Madame C.'s wood was put in, the new-comers were interested in +watching the job, for it was done in a truly Bretonesque manner. It +arrived in several odd carts, each drawn by four great horses, with two +men to each team; and as the carts were clumsy, the horses wild, and the +men stupid, the square presented a lively spectacle. At one time there +were three carts, twelve horses, and six men, all in a snarl, while a +dozen women stood at their doors and gave advice. One was washing a +lettuce, another dressing her baby, a third twirling her distaff, and a +fourth with her little bowl of soup, which she ate in public while +gesticulating so frantically that her _sabots_ clattered on the stones. + +The horses had a free fight, and the men swore and shouted in vain, till +the lady with the baby suddenly went to the rescue. Planting the naked +cherub on the door-step, this energetic matron charged in among the +rampant animals, and by some magic touch untangled the teams, quieted +the most fractious, a big grey brute, prancing like a mad elephant; then +returned to her baby, who was placidly eating dirt, and with a polite +'_Voila, messieurs!_' she whipped little Jean into his shirt, while the +men sat down to smoke. + +It took two deliberate men nearly a week to split the gnarled logs, and +one brisk woman carried them into the cellar and piled them neatly. The +men stopped about once an hour to smoke, drink cider, or rest. The +woman worked steadily from morning till night, only pausing at noon for +a bit of bread and the soup good Coste sent out to her. The men got two +francs a day, the woman half a franc; and as nothing was taken out of it +for wine or tobacco, her ten cents probably went further than their +forty. + +This same capable lady used to come to market with a baby on one arm, a +basket of fruit on the other, leading a pig, driving a donkey, and +surrounded by sheep, while her head bore a pannier of vegetables, and +her hands spun busily with a distaff. How she ever got on with these +trifling incumbrances was a mystery; but there she was, busy, placid, +and smiling, in the midst of the crowd, and at night went home with her +shopping well content. + +The washerwomen were among the happiest of these happy souls, and +nowhere were seen prettier pictures than they made, clustered round the +fountains or tanks by the way, scrubbing, slapping, singing, and +gossiping, as they washed or spread their linen on the green hedges and +daisied grass in the bright spring weather. One envied the cheery faces +under the queer caps, the stout arms that scrubbed all day, and were not +too tired to carry home some chubby Jean or little Marie when night +came; and, most of all, the contented hearts in the broad bosoms under +the white kerchiefs, for no complaint did one hear from these +hard-working, happy women. The same brave spirit seems to possess them +now as that which carried them heroically to their fate in the +Revolution, when hundreds of mothers and children were shot at Nantes +and died without a murmur. + +But of all the friends the strangers made among them they liked old +Mere Oudon best--a shrivelled leaf of a woman, who at ninety-two still +supported her old husband of ninety-eight. He was nearly helpless, and +lay in bed most of the time, smoking, while she peeled willows at a sou +a day, trudged up and down with herbs, cresses, or any little thing she +could find to sell. Very proud was she of her 'master,' his great age, +his senses still quite perfect, and most of all his strength, for now +and then the old tyrant left his bed to beat her, which token of +conjugal regard she seemed to enjoy as a relic of early days, and a +proof that he would long be spared to her. + +She kept him exquisitely neat, and if anyone gave her a plate of food, a +little snuff, or any small comfort for her patient old age, she took it +straight to the 'master,' and found a double happiness in giving and +seeing him enjoy it. + +She had but one eye, her amiable husband having put out the other once +on a time as she was leading him home tipsy from market. The kind soul +bore no malice, and always made light of it when forced to tell how the +affliction befell her. + +'My Yvon was so gay in his young days, truly, yes, a fine man, and now +most beautiful to see in his clean bed, with the new pipe that +Mademoiselle sent him. Come, then, and behold him, my superb master, who +at ninety-eight has still this strength so wonderful.' + +The ladies never cared to see him more than once, but often met the +truly beautiful old wife as she toiled to and fro, finding her faithful +love more wonderful than his strength, and feeling sure that when she +lies at last on her 'clean bed,' some good angel will repay these +ninety-two hard years with the youth and beauty, happiness and rest, +which nothing can destroy. + +Not only did the women manage the affairs of this world, but had more +influence than men with the good powers of heaven. A long drought +parched France that year, and even fertile Brittany suffered. More than +once processions of women, led by priests, poured through the gates to +go to the Croix du Saint Esprit and pray for rain. + +'Why don't the men go also?' Miss Livy asked. + +'Ah! they pray to the Virgin, and she listens best to women,' was the +answer. + +She certainly seemed to do so, for gracious showers soon fell, and the +little gardens bloomed freshly where the mothers' hard hands had planted +cabbages, onions, and potatoes to feed the children through the long +winter. + +Nor were these the only tasks the women did. The good ladies had a +hospital, and a neater, cheerier place was never seen; few invalids, but +many old people sitting in the sunny gardens, or at work in the clean +rooms. La Garaye is in ruins now, but the memory of its gentle lady +still lives, and is preserved in this benevolent institution for the +sick, the old, and poor. + +A school for girls was kept by the good nuns, and the streets at certain +hours were full of little damsels, with round caps on their braided +hair, queer long gowns of blue, white aprons and handkerchiefs, who went +clattering by in their wooden shoes, bobbing little curtsies to their +friends, and readily answering any questions inquisitive strangers asked +them. They learned to read, write, sew, and say the catechism. Also to +sing; for, often as the ladies passed the little chapel of Our Lady, a +chorus of sweet young voices came to us, making the flowery garden +behind the church of St. Sauveur a favourite resting-place. + +In endeavouring to account for the freedom of the women here, it was +decided that it was owing to Anne of Brittany, the 'gentle and generous +Duchesse,' to whom her husband Louis XII. allowed the uncontrolled +government of the duchy. Relics of the '_fiere Bretonne_,' as Louis +called her, are still treasured everywhere, and it was pleasant to know +not only that she was an accomplished woman, writing tender letters in +Latin verse to her husband, but also a wise and just Princess to her +people, 'showing herself by spirit and independence to be the most +worthy of all her race to wear the ducal crown.' So three cheers for +good Duchesse Anne, and long life to the hardy, happy women of Brittany! + +While Miss Lavinia was making these observations and moralizing upon +them, the younger ladies were enjoying discoveries and experiences more +to their tastes. + +They had not been in the house half a day before Madame C. informed them +that 'Mademoiselle, the so charming miss whom they beheld at dinner, was +to be married very soon; and they should have the rapture of witnessing +a wedding the most beautiful.' + +They welcomed the prospect with pleasure, for Dinan is not a whirl of +gaiety at the best of times: and that spring the drought, rumours of +war, and fears of small-pox, cast a shadow upon the sunny little town. +So they surveyed Mademoiselle Pelagie with interest, and longed to +behold the happy man who was to be blessed with the hand of this little, +yellow-faced girl, with red eyes, dirty hands, and a frizzled crop, so +like a wig they never could make up their minds that it was not. + +Madame, the mamma, a buxom, comely widow, who breakfasted in black +moire, with a diadem of glossy braids on her sleek head, and many jet +ornaments rattling and glistening about her person, informed them, with +voluble affability, of the whole affair. + +'My brother, M. le President, had arranged the marriage. Pelagie was +twenty, and beautiful, as you behold. It was time to establish her. _Mon +Dieu!_ yes; though my heart is lacerated to lose my angel, I consent. I +conduct her to a ball, that she may be seen by the young man whose +parents desire that he should espouse my infant. He beholds her. He +says: "Great heavens, I adore her! My father, I consent." He is +presented to me; we converse. She regards him with the angelic modesty +of a young girl, but speaks not. I approve, the parents meet, it is +arranged, and Jules is betrothed to my Pelagie. They have not met since; +but next week he comes for the marriage, and he will be permitted to +address her in my presence. Ah, yes! your customs are not as ours, and +to us seem of a deplorable freedom. Pardon that I say it.' + +On inquiring how Pelagie regarded her future lord, they found that she +thought very little about him, but was absorbed in her _trousseau_, +which she proudly displayed. To those accustomed to see and hear of +American outfits, with their lavish profusion and extravagant elegance, +poor little Pelagie's modest stores were not at all imposing. Half a +dozen pretty dresses from Paris; several amazing hats, all rosebuds, +lace, and blue ribbon; a good deal of embroidery; and a few prophetic +caps,--completed the outfit. + +One treasure, however, she was never tired of displaying,--a gift from +Jules,--a camels'-hair shawl, in a black walnut case, on which was +carved the Clomadoc arms. A set of pearls were also from the bridegroom; +but the shawl was her pride, for married women alone could wear such, +and she seemed to think this right of more importance than any the +wedding-ring could confer upon her. + +To the young ladies, both of whom had known many of the romantic +experiences which befall comely American girls, the idea of marrying a +man whom they had only seen twice seemed horrible; and to have but one +week of courtship, and that in Mamma's presence, was simply an insult +and a wrong which they would not bear to think of. + +But Pelagie seemed quite content, and brooded over her finery like a +true Frenchwoman, showing very little interest in her Jules, and only +anxious for the time to come when she could wear her shawl and be +addressed as Madame. + +While waiting for the grand event, the girls amused themselves with +Gaston, the brother of the bride-elect. He was a languid, good-looking +youth of three-and-twenty, who assumed _blase_ airs and attitudinized +for their benefit. Sometimes he was lost in fits of Byronic gloom, when +he frowned over his coffee, sighed gustily, and clutched his brow, +regardless of the curls, usually in ambrosial order. The damsels, +instead of being impressed by this display of inward agony, only laughed +at him, and soon rallied him out of his heroics. Then he would try +another plan, and become all devotion, presenting green tulips, ancient +coins, early fruit, or sketches of his own, so very small that the +design was quite obscure. If these delicate attentions failed to touch +the stony hearts of the blonde Americans, he would air his entire +wardrobe, appearing before them one day in full Breton costume of white +cloth, embroidered in gay silks, buckled shoes, and hat adorned with +streaming ribbons and flowers. Quite Arcadian was Gaston in this attire; +and very effective on the croquet ground, where sundry English families +disported themselves on certain afternoons. Another time he would get +himself up like a Parisian dandy bound for a ride in the Bois de +Boulogne; and, mounting with much difficulty a rampant horse, he would +caracole about the Place St. Louis, to the great delight of the natives. + +But this proved a failure; for one of the fair but cruel strangers +donned hat and habit, and entirely eclipsed his glories by galloping +about the country like an Amazon. The only time Gaston played escort she +was nearly the death of him, for he seldom did more than amble a mile or +two, and a hard trot of some six or eight miles reduced our Adonis to +such a state of exhaustion that he fell into his mother's arms on +dismounting, and was borne away to bed with much lamentation. + +After that he contented himself with coming to show himself in full +dress whenever he went to a party; and, as that was nearly every other +evening, they soon got accustomed to hearing a tap at their door, and +beholding the comely youth in all the bravery of glossy broadcloth, a +lavish shirt-bosom, miraculous tie, primrose gloves, varnished shoes, +and curls and moustache anointed and perfumed in the most exquisite +style. He would bow and say '_Bon soir_,' then stand to be admired, with +the artless satisfaction of a child; after which he would smile +complacently, wave his crush hat, and depart with a flourish. + +Dear, dandified, vain Gaston! His great desire was to go to Paris, and +when the war came he had his wish; but found sterner work to do than to +dress and dance and languish at the feet of ladies. I hope it made a man +of him, and fancy it did; for the French fight well and suffer bravely +for the country they love in their melodramatic fashion. + +As the day approached for the advent of the bridegroom, great excitement +prevailed in the quiet household. Madame C. and her handmaid, dear old +Marie, cackled and bustled like a pair of important hens. Madame F., the +widow, lived at the milliner's, so to speak, and had several dress +rehearsals for her own satisfaction. Gaston mounted guard over his +sister, lest some enamoured man should rend her from them ere her Jules +could secure the prize. And Pelagie placidly ate and slept, kept her +hair in crimping-pins from morning till night, wore out her old clothes, +and whiled away the time munching _bonbons_ and displaying her shawl. + +'Mercy on us! I should feel like a lamb being fattened for the sacrifice +if I were in her place,' cried one of the freeborn American +citizenesses, with an air of unmitigated scorn for French ways of +conducting this interesting ceremony. + +'I should feel like a galley-slave,' said the other. 'For she can't go +anywhere without Gaston or Mamma at her elbow. Only yesterday she went +into a shop alone, while Gaston waited at the door. And when she told it +at home as a great exploit all the ladies shrieked with horror at the +idea, and Mamma said, wringing her hands: "_Mon Dieu!_ but they will +think thou art a married woman, for it is inconceivable that any girl +should do so bold a thing." And Pelagie wept, and implored them not to +tell Jules, lest he should discard her.' + +Here the Americans all groaned over the pathetic absurdity of the whole +affair, and wondered with unrighteous glee what the decorous ladies +below would say to some of their pranks at home. But, fearing that M. le +President might feel it his duty to eject them from the town as +dangerous persons, they shrouded their past sins in the most discreet +silence, and assumed their primmest demeanour in public. + +'He has come! Look quick, girls!' cried Lavinia, as a carriage stopped +at the door, and a rushing sound, as of many agitated skirts, was heard +in the hall. Three heads peeped from the window of the blue parlour, and +three pairs of curious eyes were rewarded by a sight of the bridegroom, +as he alighted. + +Such a little man! Such a fierce moustache! Such a dignified strut! And +such an imposing uniform as he wore! For Jules Gustave Adolphe Marie +Clomadoc was a colonel in some regiment stationed at Boulogne. Out he +skipped; in he marched; and, peeping over the banisters, they saw him +salute Madame F. with a stately kiss on the hand, then escort her up to +her _salon_, bowing loftily, and twisting his tawny moustache with an +air that gave him the effect of being six feet in height, and broad in +proportion. + +How he greeted his _fiancee_ they knew not, but the murmur of voices +came from the room in steady flow for hours, and Gaston flew in and out +with an air of immense importance. + +At dinner the strangers were proudly presented to M. le Colonel, and +received affable bows from the little man, who flattered himself that he +could talk English, and insisted on speaking an unknown tongue, +evidently wondering at their stupidity in not understanding their own +language. + +He escorted Madame down, sat between her and Pelagie, but talked only to +her; while the girl sat silent and ate her dinner with an appetite which +no emotion could diminish. It was very funny to see the small warrior do +his wooing of the daughter through the mother; and the buxom widow +played her part so well that an unenlightened observer would have said +_she_ was the bride-elect. She smiled, she sighed, she discoursed, she +coquetted, and now and then plucked out her handkerchief and wept at the +thought of losing the angel, who was placidly gnawing bones and wiping +up the gravy on her plate with bits of bread. + +Jules responded with spirit, talked, jested, quoted poetry, paid +compliments right and left, and now and then passed the salt, filled a +glass, or offered a napkin to his _fiancee_ with a French shrug and a +tender glance. + +After dinner Madame F. begged him to recite one of his poems; for it +appeared this all-accomplished man was beloved of the muse, and twanged +the lyre as well as wielded the sword. With much persuasion and many +modest apologies, Jules at length consented, took his place upon the +rug, thrust one hand into his bosom, turned up his eyes, and, in a +tremendous voice, declaimed a pensive poem of some twenty stanzas, +called 'Adieu to my past.' + +The poet's friends listened with rapt countenances and frequent bursts +of emotion or applause; but the Americans suffered agonies, for the +whole thing was so absurdly melodramatic that it was with great +difficulty they kept themselves from explosions of laughter. When the +little man dropped his voice to a hoarse whisper, in bidding adieu to +the lost loves of his youth, tender-hearted old C. sobbed in her napkin; +while Livy only saved herself from hysterics by drinking a glass of +water, and Pelagie ate sugar, with her round eyes fixed on her lover's +face, without the slightest expression whatever. + +When the poet mourned his blighted hopes, and asked wildly of all the +elements if he should live or die, Gaston cast reproachful glances at +the alien charmer who had nipped his passion in the bud; and when Jules +gave a sudden start, slapped his brow, and declared that he would live +for his country, old Marie choked in her coffee, while Madame F. clapped +her fat hands, and cried: 'It is sublime!' + +The poem closed there, and the providential appearance of their donkeys +gave the ladies an excuse for retiring to their room, where they laughed +till they could laugh no more. + +Each meal was as good as a play, and every glimpse they had of the +little pair gave fresh food for mirth. Everything was so formal and +polite, so utterly unlike the free-and-easy customs of their native +land, that they were kept in alternate states of indignation and +amusement the whole time. Jules never was alone with his Pelagie for an +instant; such a breach of etiquette would have shocked the entire town. +In the walks and drives which the family took together, Madame was +always at the Colonel's side; while Gaston escorted his sister, looking +as if he was fast reaching a state of mind when he would give her away +without a pang. Many guests came and went, much kissing and bowing, +prancing and rustling, went on, up and down stairs. Stately old +gentlemen called, papers were signed, fortunes discussed, and gifts +displayed. Pelagie went much to mass; also to the barber's and the bath. +Agitated milliners flew in and out. A great load of trunks arrived from +Nantes, where Madame formerly lived; and the day before the wedding a +whole carriage full of Clomadocs appeared, and Babel seemed to have come +again. + +A great supper was given that evening, and the Three were banished to +their own rooms; where, however, they fared sumptuously, for Madame C. +and good old Marie ate with them, having no place left them but the +kitchen. Madame C. was much hurt that she had not been asked to the +wedding. It seemed the least Madame F. could do after taking possession +of the house, and turning its rightful owner out of every room but the +attic. Madame C. was a gentlewoman; and though a meek old soul, this +rudeness hurt her very much. She said nothing; but Marie fumed and +scolded fiercely, and proposed that the neglected ones should all go +away on the wedding-day, and make a _fete_ for themselves somewhere. So +they decided to drive to Dinare, enjoy the fine views of the sea and St. +Malo, dine, and return at dusk, leaving the house free for the wedding +festivities. + +The day was fine, and the ladies were graciously invited to behold the +bride before she left for church. She looked as much like a +fashion-plate as it was possible for a living girl to look; and they +dutifully kissed her on both cheeks, paid their compliments and retired, +thanking their stars that they were not in her place. + +Mamma was gorgeous to behold, in royal purple and black lace. Gaston was +so glossy and beruffled and begemmed, that they gazed with awe upon the +French Adonis. But the bridegroom was a sight for gods and men. In full +regimentals with a big sword, so many orders that there was hardly room +for them on his little breast, and a cocked hat, with a forest of +feathers, in which he extinguished himself at intervals. How his tiny +boots shone, his tawny moustache bristled with importance, and his +golden epaulets glittered as he shrugged and pranced! His honoured papa +and mamma were both tall, portly people, beside whom the manikin looked +like a child. Livy quite longed to see Madame Clomadoc take little Jules +on her knee, and amuse him with _bonbons_ when he got impatient at the +delay of the carriage. + +The Three peeped out of windows, and over the banisters, and got fine +glimpses of the splendours below. Flocks of elegant ladies went sailing +up the narrow stairs. Gentlemen with orders, dandies wonderful to +behold, and a few children (to play with the bridegroom, as Livy +wickedly said), adorned the hall and _salon_. Every one talked at the +top of his or her voice. Shrieks of rapture, groans of despair, greeted +a fine toilette or a torn glove. Peals of laughter from the gentlemen, +and shrill cries from the infants, echoed through the once peaceful +halls. As Francoise said 'It was truly divine.' + +At eleven, every one trooped into the carriages again. How they ever got +so many full-dressed people into one carriage is a mystery to this day. +But in they piled, regardless of trains, corpulency, or height; and +coach after coach lumbered away to the church. + +The bride's carriage could not be got very near the door. So she tripped +out to it, leaning on her uncle's arm, while the devoted Gaston bore her +train. Mamma sailed after in a purple cloud; and when two young damsels, +in arsenic green, were packed in, away they went, leaving the bridegroom +to follow. + +Then came the catastrophe! Stout papa and mamma were safely in; a friend +of Jules, some six feet high, shut himself up like a jack-knife; and +with a farewell wave of the cocked hat, the small bridegroom skipped in +after them. The coachman cracked his whip, intending to dash under the +arched gateway in fine style. But alas! the harness was old, the big +horses clumsy, and the road half paved. The traces gave way, the beasts +reared, the big coach lurched, and dismal wails arose. Out burst the +fierce little hero of the day, and the tall friend followed by +instalments. + +Great was the excitement as the natives gathered about the carriage with +offers of help, murmurs of sympathy, and unseemly mirth on the part of +the boys. Jules did the swearing; and never were heard such big oaths as +fell from the lips of this irate little man. It really seemed as if he +would explode with wrath. He dashed the impressive cocked hat upon the +stones, laid his hand upon his sword, tore his hair, and clutched his +moustache in paroxysms of despair. + +His bride was gone, waiting in agitated suspense for him. No other coach +could be had, as the resources of the town had been exhausted. The +harness was in a desperate state, the men at their wit's end how to +mend it, and time flying fast. _Maire_ and priest were waiting, the +whole effect of the wedding was being ruined by this delay, and 'ten +thousand devils' seemed to possess the awkward coachman. + +During the flurry, Papa Clomadoc appeared to slumber tranquilly in the +recesses of the carriage. Mamma endeavoured to soothe her boy with cries +of 'Tranquillize yourself, my cherished son. It is nothing.' 'Come, +then, and reassure papa.' 'Inhale the odour of my vinaigrette. It will +compose your lacerated nerves, my angel.' + +But the angel wouldn't come, and continued to dance and swear, and slap +his hat about until the damages were repaired, when he flung himself, +exhausted, into the carriage, and was borne away to his bride. + +'A lively prospect for poor Pelagie.' 'What a little fiend he is!' +'Spinsters for ever!' + +With these remarks, the ladies ordered their own equipage, an infant +omnibus, much in vogue in Dinan, where retired army officers, English or +Scotch, drive about with their little families of eighteen or twenty. +One Colonel Newcome, a grave-looking man, used to come to church in a +bus of this sort, with nine daughters and four sons, like a patriarch. +The strangers thought it was a boarding-school, till he presented the +entire flock, with paternal pride, as 'my treasures.' + +Madame C., in a large Leghorn bonnet, trembling with yellow bows, led +the way with an air of lofty indifference as to what became of her house +that day. Marie bore a big basket, full of cold fowls, salad, and wines; +she also was in a new spring hat of purple, which made her rosy old +face look like a china aster. Lavinia reposed upon the other seat; and +the infants insisted on sharing the driver's seat, up aloft, that they +might enjoy the prospect, which freak caused Flabeau's boy to beam and +blush till his youthful countenance was a deep scarlet. + +They had a pleasant day; for good old Madame soon recovered her temper, +and beguiled the time with lively tales of her mother's trials during +the Revolution. + +Marie concocted spiced drinks, salad that was a thing to dream of, not +to tell, and produced such edible treasures that her big basket seemed +bottomless. + +The frisky damsels explored ruins, ran races on the hard beach, sniffed +the salt breezes, and astonished the natives by swarming up and down +'precipices,' as they called the rocks. + +That was a fatal day for Flabeau's boy (they never knew his name); for, +as if the wedding had flown to his head, he lost his youthful heart to +one of the lively damsels who invaded his perch. Such tender glances as +his China-blue eyes cast upon her; such grins of joy as he gave when she +spoke to him; such feats of agility as he performed, leaping down to +gather flowers, or hurling himself over thorny hedges, to point out a +_dolmen_ or a _menhir_ (they never could remember which was which). +Alas, alas! for Flabeau's boy! Deeply was he wounded that day by the +unconscious charmer, who would as soon have thought of inspiring love in +the bosom of the broken-nosed saint by the wayside as in the heart that +beat under the blue blouse. + +I regret to say that 'the infants,' as Madame C. always called Miss +Livy's charges, behaved themselves with less decorum than could have +been wished. But the proud consciousness that _they_ never could be +disposed of as Pelagie had been had such an exhilarating effect upon +them that they frisked like the lambs in the field. + +One drove the bus in a retired spot and astonished the stout horses by +the way in which she bowled them along the fine, hard road. The other +sang college songs, to the intense delight of the old ladies, who +admired the '_chants Ameriques_ so gay,' and to the horror of their +duenna, who knew what they meant. A shower came up, and they _would_ +remain outside; so the boy put up a leathern hood, and they sat inside +in such a merry mood that the silent youth suddenly caught the +infection, and burst forth into a Breton melody, which he continued to +drone till they got home. + +The house was a blaze of light when they arrived, and Francoise, the +maid, came flying out to report sundry breakages and mishaps. How the +salad had precipitated itself downstairs, dish and all. How Monsieur +Gaston was so gay, so inconceivably gay, that he could hardly stand, and +insisted on kissing her clandestinely. That Mademoiselle Pelagie had +wept much because her veil was torn; and Madame F. had made a fresh +toilette, ravishing to behold. Would the dear ladies survey the party, +still at table? Regard them from the little window in the garden, and +see if it is not truly a spectacle the most superb! + +They did regard them, and saw the bride at the head of the table, eating +steadily through the dessert; the bridegroom reciting poems with +tremendous effect; Gaston almost invisible behind a barricade of +bottles; and Madame F., in violet velvet, diamonds, plumes, and lace, +more sleek and buxom than ever. The ladies all talked at once, and the +gentlemen drank healths every five minutes. A very French and festive +scene it was; for the room was small, and twenty mortals were stowed +therein. One fat lady sat in the fireplace, Papa Clomadoc leaned his +heavy head upon the sideboard, and the plump shoulders of Madame F. were +half out of the front window. 'But it was genteel. Oh! I assure you, +yes,' as Francoise said. + +How long they kept it up the weary trio did not wait to see, but retired +to their beds, and slumbered peacefully, waking only when Gaston was +borne up to his room, chanting the 'Marseillaise' at the top of his +voice. + +Next day M. and Madame Clomadoc, Jr., made calls, and Pelagie had the +joy of wearing her shawl. For three days she astonished the natives by +promenading with her lord in a fresh toilette each day. On the fourth +they all piled into a big carriage, and went away to make a round of +visits, before the young people settled down at Boulogne. + +The Americans never thought to hear any more of Pelagie; but, as dear +old Madame C. wrote to them several times after they left, the little +story may be finished here, though the sequel did not actually come till +a year later. + +Many were the sage predictions of the Three as to the success of this +marriage--Amanda approving of that style of thing, Matilda objecting +fiercely to the entire affair, and Lavinia firmly believing in the good +old doctrine of love as your only firm basis for so solemn a bargain. + +Wagers were laid that the fiery little Colonel would shoot some one in a +jealous fit, or that Pelagie would elope, or both charcoal themselves to +death, as the best way out of the predicament. But none of them guessed +how tragically it would really end. + +Late in the following spring came a letter from Madame C., telling them +that Jules had gone to the war, and been shot in his first battle; that +Pelagie was with her mother again, comforting herself for her loss with +a still smaller Jules, who never saw his father, and, it is to be hoped, +did not resemble him. So little Pelagie's brief romance ended; and one +would fancy that the experiences of that year would make her quite +content to remain under mamma's wing, with no lord and master but the +little son, to whom she was a very tender mother. + +Pleasant days those were in quaint old Dinan; for spring's soft magic +glorified earth and sky, and a delicious sense of rest and freedom gave +a charm to that quiet life. Legends of romance and chivalry hung about +the ruins of castle and _chateau_, as green and golden as the ivy and +bright wall-flowers that tapestried the crumbling walls, and waved like +banners from the turret tops. Lovely walks into woods, starred with pale +primroses, and fragrant with wild hyacinths; down green lanes, leading +to quaint cottages, or over wide meadows full of pink-tipped daisies and +dear familiar buttercups, the same all the world over. + +Sometimes they took gay donkey-drives to visit a solemn dolmen in a +gloomy pine-wood, with mistletoe hanging from the trees, and the ghosts +of ancient Druids haunting the spot. The cavalcade on such occasions was +an imposing spectacle. Matilda being fond of horses likewise affected +donkeys (or thought she did, till she tried to drive one), and usually +went first in a small vehicle like a chair on wheels, drawn by an +animal who looked about the size of a mouse, when the stately Mat in +full array, yellow parasol, long whip, camp-stool, and sketch-book, sat +bolt upright on her perch, driving in the most approved manner. + +The small beast, after much whipping, would break into a trot, and go +pattering over the hard, white road, with his long ears wagging, and his +tiny hoofs raising a great dust for the benefit of the other turnout +just behind. + +In a double chair sat Lavinia, bundled up as usual, and the amiable +Amanda, both flushed with constant pokings and thrashings of their +steed. A venerable ass, so like an old whity-brown hair trunk as to his +body, and Nick Bottom's mask as to his head, that he was a constant +source of mirth to the ladies. Mild and venerable as he looked, however, +he was a most incorrigible beast, and it took two immortal souls, and +four arms, to get the ancient donkey along. + +Vain all the appeals to his conscience, pity, or pride: nothing but a +sharp poke among his ribs, a steady shower of blows on his fuzzy old +back, and frequent 'yanks' of the reins produced any effect. It was +impossible to turn out for anything, and the ladies resigned themselves +to the ignominy of sitting still, in the middle of the road, and letting +other carriages drive over or round them. + +On rare occasions the beast would bolt into the ditch as a vehicle drew +near; but usually he paused abruptly, put his head down, and apparently +went to sleep. + +Matilda got on better, because little Bernard Du Guesclin, as she named +her mouse, was so very small, that she could take him up, and turn him +round bodily, when other means failed, or pull him half into the chair +if danger threatened in front. He was a sprightly little fellow, and had +not yet lost all the ardour of youth, or developed the fiendish +obstinacy of his kind; so he frequently ran little races--now and then +pranced, and was not quite dead to the emotion of gratitude in return +for bits of bread. + +Truly, yes; the fair Mat with her five feet seven inches, and little +Bernard, whose longest ear, when most erect, did not reach much above +her waist, were a sweet pair of friends, and caused her mates great +amusement. + +'I must have some one to play with, for I can't improve my mind _all_ +the time as 'Mandy does, or cuddle and doze like Livy. I've had +experience with young donkeys of all sorts, and I give you my word +little Bernie is much better fun than some I've known with shorter ears +and fewer legs.' + +Thus Matilda, regardless of the jeers of her friends, when they +proposed having the small beast into the _salon_ to beguile the tedium +of a rainy day. + +As the summer came on, picnics were introduced, and gay parties would +pile into and on to Flabeau's small omnibus, and drive off to Hunandaye, +Coetquen, La Belliere, Guingamp, or some other unpronounceable but most +charming spot, for a day of sunshine and merrymaking. + +The hospitable English came out strong on these occasions, with ''ampers +of 'am-sandwiches, bottled porter and so on, don't you know?' all in +fine style. Even the stout doctor donned his knickerbockers and grey +hose, unfurled his Japanese umbrella, and, with a pretty niece on either +arm, disported himself like a boy. + +But pleasantest of all were the daily strolls through the little town +and its environs, getting glimpses of Breton manners and customs. + +The houses were usually composed of one room, where, near the open fire, +and fixed against the wall, stands the bedstead or _lit clos_, of old +oak, shut in by carved sliding panels, often bearing an inscription or +some sacred symbol. The mattresses and feather-beds are so piled up, +that there is hardly room to creep in. Before it is the big chest +containing the family wardrobe, answering the double purpose of a seat +and a step by which to ascend the lofty bed. Cupboards on each side +often have wide shelves, where the children sleep. Settles and a long +table complete the furniture; the latter often has little wells hollowed +out in the top to hold the soup instead of plates. Over the table, +suspended by pulleys, are two indispensable articles in a Breton +house,--a large round basket to cover the bread, and a wooden frame to +hold the spoons. Festoons of sausages, hams, candles, onions, +horse-shoes, harness, and tools, all hang from the ceiling. The floor is +of beaten earth. One narrow window lets in the light. There are no +out-houses, and pigs and poultry mingle freely with the family. + +The gardens are well kept, and produce quantities of fruit and +vegetables. The chief food of the poorer class is bread or porridge of +buckwheat, with cabbage soup, made by pouring hot water over cabbage +leaves and adding a bit of butter. + +They are a home-loving people, and pine like the Swiss, if forced to +leave their native land. They are brave soldiers and good sailors. +'Their vices,' as a Breton writer says, 'are avarice, contempt for +women, and drunkenness; their virtues, love of home and country, +resignation to the will of God, loyalty to each other, and +hospitality.' Their motto is, 'En tout chemin loyaute.' + +They are very superstitious, and some of their customs are curious. At +New Year pieces of bread and butter are thrown into the fountains, and +from the way in which they swim the future is foretold. If the buttered +side turns under, it forebodes death; if two pieces adhere together, it +is a sign of sickness; and if a piece floats properly, it is an +assurance of long life and prosperity. + +Girls throw pins into the fountain of Saloun to tell, by their manner of +sinking, when they will be married. If the pin goes down head-foremost, +there is little hope; but, if the point goes first, it is a sure sign of +being married that year. + +Their veneration for healing-springs is very great, and, though at +times forbidden by the Church, is still felt. Pounded snails, worn in a +bag on the neck, is believed to be a cure for fever; and a certain holy +bell rung over the head, a cure for head-ache. 'If we believe in that +last remedy, what a ceaseless tingling that bell would keep up in +America!' said Lavinia, when these facts were mentioned to her. + +In some towns they have, in the cemetery, a bone-house or reliquary. It +is the custom, after a certain time, to dig up the bones of the dead, +and preserve the skulls in little square boxes like bird-houses, with a +heart-shaped opening, to show the relic within. The names and dates of +the deceased are inscribed outside. + +Saint Ives or Yves is a favourite saint, and images of him are in all +churches and over many doors. He was one of the remarkable characters +of the thirteenth century. He studied law in Paris, and devoted his +talents to defending the poor; hence, he was called 'the poor man's +advocate:' and so great is the confidence placed in his justice, that, +even now, when a debtor falsely denies his debt, a peasant will pay +twenty _sous_ for a mass to St. Ives, sure that the Saint will cause the +faithless creditor to die within the year or pay up. + +His truthfulness was such that he was called 'St. Yves de verite.' He +was the special patron of lawyers, but he does not seem to be their +model. + +The early monks taught the people to work, and their motto was 'The +Cross and the plough, labour and prayer.' They introduced apples, now +the principal fruit of Brittany. Much cider is made and drank; and in +old times they got their wine from France in exchange for wax and +honey, as they were famous bee-keepers. Great fields of buck-wheat still +afford food for the 'yellow-breeched philosophers,' and in many cottage +gardens a row of queerly shaped hives stand in sunny nooks. + +These monks were the model farmers of those days, and their abbeys were +fine farms. One had twenty piggeries, of three hundred pigs each, in its +forests. The monks also reared sheep and horses, and bred fish in their +ponds. + +Many were also brewers, weavers, carpenters, and so on. Evidently they +lived up to their motto and laboured quite as much as they prayed, and +doubtless were saved by works as well as by faith. + +The little Place Du Guesclin, with a stumpy statue of the famous knight +in the middle and chestnut trees all around, was a favourite +resting-place of the ladies--especially when the weekly fair was held +and booths of all sorts were raised at one end. Here Amanda bought a +remarkable jack-knife, which would cut nothing but her fingers: Matilda +speculated in curious kinds of cake; one sort being made into gigantic +jumbles so light that they did excellently for grace-hoops; another sort +being used by these vandals as catch-alls, so deep and tough were they. +Lavinia examined the various fabrics, and got bits of linen as samples, +also queer earthen pots and pans impossible to carry away. + +The church of St. Sauveur, a dim and ancient little place with Du +Guesclin's heart buried by the side of his wife, was another haunt. The +castle, now a prison, contained the arm-chair in which Duchess Anne sat, +and the dungeons where were crammed two thousand English prisoners of +war in the last century. The view from the platform of the keep was +magnificent, extending to Mont Dol and the distant sea. + +The sunny promenade on the _fosse_, that goes half round the town, was +very charming, with the old grey walls on one side, and, on the other, +the green valley with its luxuriant gardens, and leafy lanes, winding up +to the ruined _chateau_, or the undulating hills with picturesque +windmills whirling on the heights. + +On the other side of the town, from the high gardens of the church, one +looked down into the deeper valley of the Rance, with the airy viaduct +striding from hill to hill, and the old part of the town nestling at its +base. + +Soft and summery, fertile and reposeful, was the scene; and the busy +peasants at their work added to the charm. Pretty English children with +Breton nurses, each in the costume of her native town, played under the +lindens all abloom with odorous flowers and alive with bees. Workmen +came to these green places to eat the black bread and drink the thin +wine that was all their dinner. Invalids strolled here after their baths +at the little house in the rose-garden below. Pretty girls walked there +in the twilight with long-haired lovers in knee breeches and round hats. +Nuns in their grey gowns went to and fro from hospital and the insane +asylum or charity school; and the beautiful old priest sometimes went +feebly by, smiling paternally on his flock, who rose and uncovered +reverently as he passed. + +Flowers were everywhere,--in the gardens of the rich, at the windows of +the poor. The stalls in the market were gay with plumy lilacs, splendid +tulips, roses of every shade, and hyacinths heavy with odour. All along +the borders of the river waved the blossoming grass; every green bank +about the mills at Lehon was yellow with dandelions, and the sunny +heads of little children welcoming the flower of the poor. Even the +neglected churchyard of the ruined abbey, where the tombs of the stately +Beaumanoirs still stand, was bright with cheerful daisies and blue-eyed +forget-me-nots. + +The willows in the valley were covered with fragrant tassels, and the +old women and children sat all day on door-stones and by the wayside +stripping the long, white wands for basket-making. Flax fields were +blooming in the meadows, and acres of buckwheat, with its rosy stems and +snowy blossoms, whitened the uplands with a fair prophecy of bread for +all. + +So, garlanded about with early flowers and painted in spring's softest, +freshest colours, Brittany remains for ever a pleasant picture in the +memory of those who have been welcomed to its hospitable homes, and +found friends among its brave and loyal people. + + + + +III. + +_FRANCE._ + + +'Girls, I have had a scintillation in the night: listen and approve!' +said Amanda, coming into the room where her comrades sat upon the floor, +in the first stages of despair, at the impossibility of getting the +accumulated rubbish of three months' travel into a couple of immense +trunks. + +'Blessed girl! you always bring a ray of light just at the darkest +moment,' returned Lavinia, with a sigh of relief, while Matilda looked +over a barricade of sketch-books bristling with paint-brushes, and added +anxiously,-- + +'If you _could_ suggest how I am to work this miracle, you will be a +public benefactor.' + +'Behold the amendment I propose,' began Amanda, perching herself on one +of the arks. 'We have decided to travel slowly and comfortably through +France to Switzerland, stopping where we like, and staying as long as we +please at any place we fancy, being as free as air, and having all the +world before us where to choose, as it were.' + +'The route you have laid out is a charming one, and I don't see how you +can improve it,' said Lavinia, who, though she was supposed to be the +matron, guide, and protector of the younger girls, was in reality +nothing but a dummy, used for Mrs. Grundy's sake, and let the girls do +just as they pleased, only claiming the right to groan and moan as much +as she liked when neuralgia, her familiar demon, claimed her for its +own. + +'One improvement remains to be made. Are these trunks a burden, a +vexation of spirit, a curse?' demanded Amanda, tapping one with her +carefully cherished finger-tips. + +'They are! they are!' groaned the others, regarding the monsters with +abhorrence. + +'Then let us get rid of them, and set out with no luggage but a few +necessaries in a shawl-strap.' + +'We will! we will!' returned the chorus. + +'Shall we burn up our rubbish, or give it away?' asked Lavinia, who +liked energetic measures, and was ready to cast her garments to the four +winds of heaven, to save herself from the agonies of packing. + +'_I_ shall never give up my pictures, nor my boots!' cried Matilda, +gathering her idols to her breast in a promiscuous heap. + +'Be calm and listen,' returned the scintillator. 'Pack away all but the +merest necessaries, and we will send the trunk by express to Lyons. Then +with our travelling-bags and bundles, we can follow at our leisure.' + +''Tis well! 'tis well!' replied the chorus, and they all returned to +their packing, which was performed in the most characteristic manner. + +Amanda never seemed to have any clothes, yet was always well and +appropriately dressed; so it did not take her long to lay a few +garments, a book or two, a box of Roman-coin lockets, scarabae brooches, +and cinque-cento rings, likewise a swell hat and habit, into her vast +trunk; then lock and label it in the most business-like and thorough +manner. + +Matilda found much difficulty in reconciling paint-pots and silk gowns, +blue hats and statuary, French boots and Yankee notions. But order was +at length produced from chaos, and the young lady refreshed her weary +soul by painting large red M's all over the trunk to mark it for her +own. + +Miss Lavinia packed and repacked four or five times, forgetting +needfuls, which, of course, were always at the very bottom. At the fifth +plunge into the depths her patience gave out, and with a vow to be a +slave no longer to her treacherous memory, she tumbled every thing in, +performed a solemn jig on the lid till it locked, then pasted large, but +illegible placards in every available spot, and rested from her labours +with every nerve in a throbbing condition. + +Shawl-straps of the largest, strongest sort were next procured, and the +three bundles made up with much discussion and merriment. + +Into Amanda's went a volume of Shakspeare of great size and weight, but +as indispensable as a tooth-brush to its owner; toilette-articles tied +up in a handkerchief, a few necessary garments, and much paper,--for +Amanda was inspired with poetic fire at unexpected moments, also had +five hundred bosom friends, in answering whose epistolary gushings much +stationery was consumed. A pistol, a massive crust of bread, and an oval +box containing all the dainty appliances for the culture, preservation, +and ornamentation of the finger-nails, made up her store. + +Matilda's bundle consisted of sketch-books, a trifle of haberdashery, a +curling-stick that was always tumbling out at inopportune moments, yards +of blue ribbon, and a camp-stool strapped outside in company with a +Japanese umbrella, a gift from the stout doctor, destined to be cursed +in many languages by the unhappy beings into whose backs, eyes, and +stomachs it was poked before its wanderings ended. + +Lavinia confined herself to a choice collection of bottles and +pill-boxes, fur boots, a grey cloud, and several French novels,--the +solace of wakeful nights. A scarlet army blanket, with U. S. in big +black letters on it, enveloped her travelling medicine-chest, and lent a +cheerful air to the sombre spinster, whose black attire and hoarse voice +made the _sobriquet_ of Raven most appropriate. + +With these imposing bundles in one hand, little pouches slung over the +shoulder, plain travelling-suits, subdued hats, and resolute but benign +countenances, our three errant damsels set forth one bright June day, to +wander through France at their own sweet will. Not a fear assailed them; +for all men were civil, all women friendly, and the world wore its +sunniest aspect. Not a doubt perplexed them; for the gifted Amanda spoke +many tongues, understood all sorts of money, could grapple successfully +with Murray and Bradshaw, and never got into the wrong corporation when +she traced a route with unerring accuracy through the mysteries of an +Indicator. No lord and master, in the shape of brother, spouse, or +courier, ordered their outgoings and incomings; but liberty the most +entire was theirs, and they enjoyed it heartily. Wisely and well too; +for, though off the grand route, they behaved themselves in public as +decorously as if the eyes of all prim Boston were upon them, and proved +by their triumphant success, that the unprotected might go where they +liked, if they conducted themselves with the courtesy and discretion of +gentlewomen. + +How pleasant were the early sail down the Ranee from Dinan to St. Malo, +the comfortable breakfast in the flowery little court of Hotel Franklin, +and the stroll afterward about the quaint old town, looking at the +churches, buying fruit, and stoutly resisting the temptations of antique +jewelry displayed in the dingy shops! Lavinia never forgave herself, +however, for not securing a remarkable watch, and Amanda sighed months +afterward for a Breton collar and cross of charming antiquity and +ugliness. + +Matilda boldly planted her camp-stool, unfurled her umbrella, and, +undaunted by the crowd of round-capped, blue-bloused, wooden-shoed +children about her, began to draw the church. + +'I intend to study architecture, and to sketch _all_ the cathedrals we +see,' said the ardent art-student, struggling manfully with the unruly +umbrella, the unsavoury odours from the gutter, and the garrulous crowd +leaning over her shoulder, peering under her hat-brim, and examining all +her belongings with a confiding freedom rather embarrassing. + +'Do you know what impertinent things these little scamps are saying to +you?' asked Amanda, pausing in a lecture on surface drainage which she +was delivering to Lavinia, who was vainly struggling to cram a fat wine +bottle, a cabbage leaf of strawberries, and some remarkable cakes into +the lunch-basket. + +'No: I don't; and that is the advantage of not knowing any language but +my own,' complacently replied Matilda, who considered all study but that +of art as time wasted, and made her small store of French answer +admirably by talking very loud and fast, and saying, '_Oui, oui, oui_,' +on all occasions with much gesticulation, and bows and smiles of great +suavity and sweetness. + +'Clear out this rabble, or come back to the hotel and wait for the bus. +We shall have the whole town round us soon, and I can't stand it,' said +Amanda, who had no romantic admiration for the Great Unwashed. + +'You think I can't do it? _Voila!_' and, rising suddenly to an +unexpected height, Matilda waved the umbrella like a _baton_, cried +'_Allez!_' in a stern voice, and the children fled like chaff before the +wind. + +'You see how little is needed, so don't vex me with learning your old +verbs any more!' and Matilda closed her book with an air of calm +satisfaction. + +'Come home and rest. It is so warm here I am fairly melted,' prayed +Lavinia, who had been longing for summer, and of course was not suited +when she got it. + +'Now, do remember one thing: don't let us be gregarious. We never know +who we may pick up if we talk to people; and stray acquaintances are sad +bores sometimes. Granny is such a cross old dear she won't say a word to +any one if she can help it; but you, Mat, can't be trusted if we meet +any one who talks English. So be on your guard, or the peace of this +party is lost,' said Amanda, impressively. + +'We are not likely to meet any but natives in this wilderness; so don't +excite yourself, Mandy, dear,' replied Matilda, who, being of a social +turn and an attractive presence, was continually making friends, to the +great annoyance of her more prudent comrades. + +In the flowery courtyard sat the group that one meets everywhere on the +Continent,--even in the wilds of Brittany. The father and mother stout, +tired, and rather subdued by the newness of things; the son, Young +America personified, loud, important, and inquisitive; the daughter, +pretty, affected, and over-dressed; all on the lookout for adventures +and titles, fellow-countrymen to impress, and foreigners eager to get +the better of them. + +Seeing the peril from afar, Amanda buried herself in Murray, to read up +the tomb of Chateaubriand, the tides, population, and any other useful +bit of history; for Amanda was a thrifty soul, and + + + 'Gathered honey all the day + From every opening flower.' + + +Lavinia, finding the court damp, shrouded herself in the grey cloud, put +her feet on the red bundle, and fortified herself with a Turner's pill. + +But Matilda, guileless girl, roamed to and fro, patted the horses at the +gate, picked flowers that no French hand would have dared to touch, and +studied the effect of light and shade on the red head of the _garcon_, +who gazed sentimentally at 'the blonde "Mees,"' as he artlessly watered +the wine for dinner. + +The Americans had their eye upon her, and felt that, though the others +might be forbidding English women, this one could be made to talk. So +they pounced upon their prey, to the dismay of her mates, and proceeded +to ask fifty questions to the minute. Poor Mat, glad to hear the sound +of her native tongue, fell into the snare, and grew more confiding every +moment. + +'She is telling the family history,' whispered Lavinia, in a tone of +despair. + +'Now they are asking where we came from,' added Amanda, casting down her +book in agony. + +'Wink at her,' sighed Lavinia. + +'Call to her,' groaned Amanda, as they heard their treasured secret +betrayed, and the enemy clamouring for further information about this +charming trip. + +'Matilda, bring me my shawl,' commanded the Dowager. + +'Come and see if you don't think we had better go direct to Tours,' said +the wary Amanda, hoping to put the enemy off the track. + +The victim came, and vials of wrath were poured upon her head in one +unceasing flow till the omnibus started, and the ladies were appeased by +finding that the enemy did not follow. + +'Promise that you won't talk to any but natives, or I decline to lead +this expedition,' said Amanda firmly. + +'I promise,' returned Mat, with penitent meekness. + +'Now we've got her!' croaked the Raven; 'for she will have to learn +French or hold her tongue.' + +'The language of the eye remains to me, and I am a proficient in that, +ma'am,' said Mat, roused by these efforts to deny her the right of free +speech. + +'You are welcome to it, dear;' and Amanda departed to buy tickets and +despatch the trunks, with secret misgivings that they would never be +found again. + +'Now we are fairly started, with no more weighing of luggage, fussing +over checks, or packing of traps to afflict us. What a heavenly sense of +freedom it gives one, to have nothing but an independent shawl-strap!' +said Matilda, as they settled themselves in a vacant car, and stowed +away the bundles. + +What a jolly day that was, to be sure! Whether it was the air, the good +coffee, or the liberty, certain it is that three merrier maids never +travelled from St. Malo to Le Mans on a summer's day. Even the Raven +forgot her woes, and became so exhilarated that she smashed her bromide +bottle out of the window, declaring herself cured, and tried to sing +'Hail Columbia,' in a voice like an asthmatic bagpipe. + +Mat amused herself and her comrades by picking up the different articles +that kept tumbling down on her head from her badly built bundle; while +Amanda scintillated to such an extent that the others laughed themselves +into hysterics, and lay exhausted, prone upon the seats. + +They ate, drank, sung, gossiped, slept, read, and revelled, till another +passenger got in, when propriety clothed them as with a garment, and +the mirthful damsels became three studious statues. + +The new-comer was a little priest; so rosy and young that they called +him the 'Reverend Boy.' He seemed rather dismayed at first; but, finding +the ladies silent and demure, he took heart, and read diligently in a +dingy little prayer-book, stealing shy glances now and then from under +his broad-brimmed hat at Amanda's white hands, or Matilda's yellow +locks, as if these vanities of the flesh had not quite lost their charms +for him. By and by he fell asleep, and leaned in his corner, making +quite a pretty picture; for the ugly hat was off, his boyish face as +placid as a child's, his buckled shoes and neat black-stockinged legs +stretched comfortably out, his plump hands folded over the dingy book, +and the little bands lay peacefully on his breast. + +He was quite at their mercy now; so the three women looked as much as +they liked, wondering if the poor dear boy was satisfied with the life +he had chosen, and getting tenderly pitiful over the losses he might +learn to regret when it was too late. His dreams seemed to be pleasant +ones, however; for once he laughed a blithe, boyish laugh, good to hear; +and when he woke, he rubbed his blue eyes and stared about, smiling like +a newly roused baby. + +He got out all too soon, was joined by several other clerical youths, +and disappeared with much touching of big beavers, and wafting of +cassocks. + +Innocent, reverend little boy! I wonder what became of him, and hope his +sleep is as quiet now as then,--his awakening as happy as it seemed that +summer day. + +Six o'clock saw our damsels at Le Mans; and, after dinner, a sunset +walk took them to the grand old cathedral, where they wandered till +moonrise. Pure Gothic of the twelfth century, rich in stained glass, +carved screens, tombs of kings and queens, dim little chapels, where +devout souls told their beads before shadowy pictures of saints and +martyrs, while over all the wonderful arches seemed to soar, one above +the other, light and graceful as the natural curves of drooping +branches, or the rise and fall of some great fountain. + +'We shall not see anything finer than this, I'm sure. It's a perfect +revelation to me,' said Matilda, in a calm rapture at the beauty all +about her. + +'This is a pious-feeling church, and I could say my prayers here with +all my soul; for it seems as if the religion of centuries had got built +into it,' added Lavinia, thinking of the ugly imitations at home. + +'You will both turn Catholic before we get through,' prophesied Amanda, +retiring to study the tomb of Berengaria, Coeur de Lion's wife. + +The square before the hotel was gay with a market, many soldiers +lounging about, and flocks of people eating ices before the _cafes_. The +ladies enjoyed it from the balcony, and then slumbered peacefully in a +great room with three alcoves, much muslin drapery, and a bowl and +pitcher like a good-sized cup and saucer. + +Another look at the cathedral in the early morning, and then away to +Tours, which place they found a big, clean, handsome city, all astir for +the _Fete-Dieu_. + +'We will stay over Sunday and see it,' was the general vote as the trio +headed for the great church, and, catching sight of it, they subsided +into a seat by the fountain opposite, and sat looking silently at the +magnificent pile. + +How strangely impressive and eloquent it was! The evening red touched +its grey towers with a mellow light, like sunshine on a venerable head. +Lower down, flights of rooks circled round the fretted niches, quaint +windows, and grotesque gargoyles, while the great steps below swarmed +with priests and soldiers, gay strangers and black-robed nuns, children +and beggars. + +For an hour our pilgrims sat and studied the wonderful _facade_, or +walked round the outside, examining the rich carvings that covered every +inch of the walls. Twilight fell before they had thought of entering, +and feeling that they had seen enough for that night, they went +thoughtfully home to dream of solemn shadows and saintly faces, for the +cathedral haunted them still. + +Next day was spent in viewing Charlemagne's Tower, and seeing the grand +procession in honour of the day. The streets were hung with garlands, +gay tapestries and banners, strewn with fresh boughs, and lined with +people in festival array. As the procession passed, women ran out and +scattered rose-leaves before it, and one young mother set her blooming +baby on a heap of greenery in the middle of the street, leaving it +there, that the Holy Ghost under its canopy might pass over it. A pretty +sight, the rosy little creature smiling in the sunshine as it sat +playing with its own blue shoes, while the golden pageant went by; the +chanting priests stepping carefully, and looking down with sudden +benignity in their tired faces as the holy shadow fell on the bright +head, making baby blessed, and saved for ever in its pious mother's +eyes. + +A great band played finely, scarlet soldiers followed, then the banners +of patron saints were borne by children. Saint Agnes and her lamb led a +troop of pretty little girls carrying tall white lilies, filling the air +with their sweetness. Mary, Our Mother, was followed by many orphans +with black ribbons crossed over the young hearts that had lost so much. +Saint Martin led the charity boys in purple suits of just the colour of +the mantle he was dividing with the beggar on the banner. A pleasant +emblem of the charitable cloak that covers so many. + +Priests in full splendour paced solemnly along with censers swinging, +candles flickering, sweet-voiced boys singing, and hundreds kneeling as +they passed. Most impressive figures, unless one caught a glimpse of +something comically human to disturb the effect of the heavenly pageant. +Lavinia had an eye for the ludicrous and though she dropped a tear over +the orphans, and with difficulty resisted a strong desire to catch and +kiss the pretty baby, she scandalized her neighbours by laughing +outright the next minute. A particularly portly, pious-looking priest, +who was marching with superb dignity, and chanting like a devout +bumble-bee, suddenly mislaid his temper, and injured the effect by +boxing a charity boy's ears with his gilded missal, and then capped the +climax by taking a pinch of snuff with a sonorous satisfaction that +convulsed the heretic. + +The afternoon was spent in the church, wandering to and fro, each alone +to study and enjoy in her own way. Matilda lost her head entirely, and +had silent raptures over the old pictures. Amanda said her prayers, +looked up her dates, and imparted her facts in a proper and decorous +manner, while Lavinia went up and down, finding for herself little +pictures not painted by hands, and reading histories more interesting to +her than those of saints and martyrs. + +In one dim chapel, with a single candle lighting up the divine sorrow of +the Mater Dolorosa, knelt a woman in deep black, weeping and praying all +alone. In another flowery nook dedicated to the Infant Jesus, a peasant +girl was telling her beads over the baby asleep in her lap; her sunburnt +face refined and beautiful by the tenderness of mother-love. In a third +chapel a pale, wasted old man sat propped in a chair, while his rosy old +wife prayed heartily to St. Gratien, the patron saint of the church, for +the recovery of her John Anderson. And most striking of all was a dark, +handsome young man, well-dressed and elegant, who was waiting at the +door of a confessional with some great trouble in his face, as he +muttered and crossed himself, while his haggard eyes were fixed on the +benignant figure of St. Francis, as if asking himself if it were +possible for him also to put away the pleasant sins and follies of the +world, and lead a life like that which embalms the memory of that good +man. + +'If we don't go away to-morrow we never shall, for this church will +bewitch us, and make it impossible to leave,' said Amanda, when at +length they tore themselves away. + +'I give up trying to sketch cathedrals. It can't be done, and seems +impious to try,' said Matilda, quite exhausted by something deeper than +pleasure. + +'I think the "Reminiscences of a Rook" would make a capital story. They +are long-lived birds, and could tell tales of the past that would +entirely eclipse our modern rubbish,' said Lavinia, taking a last look +at the solemn towers, and the shadowy birds that had haunted them for +ages. + +The ladies agreed to be off early in the morning, that they might reach +Amboise in time for the eleven o'clock breakfast. Amanda was to pay the +bill, and to make certain enquiries at the office; Mat to fly out and do +a trifle of shopping; while Lavinia packed up the bundles and mounted +guard over them. They separated, but in half-an-hour all met again, not +in their room according to agreement, but before the cathedral, which +all had decided not to revisit on any account. + +Matilda was there first, and as each of the others came stealing round +the corner, she greeted them with a laugh, in which all joined after the +first surprise was over. + +'I told you it would bewitch us,' said Amanda; and then all took a +farewell look, which lasted so long that they had to rush back to the +hotel in most unseemly haste. + +'Now to fresh _chateaux_ and churches new,' sang Lavinia, as they rolled +away on the fourth stage of their summer journey. A very short stage it +was, and soon they were in an entirely new scene, for Amboise was a +little, old-time village on the banks of the Loire, looking as if it had +been asleep for a hundred years. The Lion d'Or was a quaint place, so +like the inns described in French novels, that one kept expecting to see +some of Dumas' heroes come dashing up, all boots, plumes, and pistols, +with a love-letter for some court beauty in the castle on the hill +beyond. + +Queer galleries and stairs led up outside the house to the rooms above. +The _salle-a-manger_ was across a court, and every dish came from a +kitchen round the corner. The _garcon_, a beaming, ubiquitous creature, +trotted perpetually, diving down steps, darting into dark corners, or +skipping up ladders, producing needfuls from most unexpected places. The +bread came from the stable, soup from the cellar, coffee out of a +meal-chest, and napkins from the housetop, apparently, for Adolphe went +up among the weather-cocks to get them. + +'No one knows us, no one can speak a word of English, and if we happen +to die here it will never be known. How romantic and nice it is!' +exclaimed Mat, in good spirits, for the people treated the ladies as if +they were duchesses in disguise, and the young women liked it. + +'I'm not so sure that the romance is all it looks. We should be in a +sweet quandary if anything happened to our sheet-anchor here. Just +remember, in any danger, save Amanda first, then she will save us. But +if she is lost, all is lost,' replied Lavinia, darkly, for she always +took tragical views of life when her bones ached. + +Up the hill they went after breakfast; and balm was found for the old +lady's woes in the sight of many Angora cats, of great size and beauty. +White as snow, with tails like plumes, and mild, yellow eyes, were these +charmers. At every window sat one; on every door-step sprawled a bunch +of down; and frequently the eye of the tabby-loving spinster was +gladdened by the touching spectacle of a blonde mamma in the bosom of +her young family. + +'If I could only carry it, I'd have one of those dears, no matter what +it cost!' cried Lavinia, more captivated by a live cat than by all the +dead Huguenots that Catherine de Medicis hung over the castle walls on +a certain memorable occasion. + +'Well, you can't, so come on and improve your mind with some good, +useful history,' said Amanda, leading them forward. 'You _must_ remember +that Charles VII. was born here in 1470--that Anne of Brittany married +him for her first husband, and that he bumped his head against a low +door in the garden here above, as he was running through to play bowls +with his Anne, and it killed him.' + +'Which? the bump or the bowls?' asked Mat, who liked to have things +clearly stated. + +'Don't be frivolous, child. Here Margaret of Anjou and her son were +reconciled to Warwick. Abd-el Kader and his family were kept prisoners +here, and in the garden is a tomb with a crescent on it; likewise a +"pleached walk," and a winding drive inside the great tower, up which +lords and ladies used to ride straight into the hall,' continued the +sage Amanda, who yearned to enlighten the darkness of her careless +friends. + +A brisk old woman did the honours of the castle, showing them mouldy +chapels, sepulchral halls, rickety stairs, grubby cells, and pitch-dark +passages, till even the romantic Matilda was glad to see the light of +day, and repose in the pleasant gardens while removing the cobwebs from +her countenance and the dust from her raiment. + +A lovely view gladdened their eyes as they stood on the balcony whence +the amiable Catherine surveyed the walls hung thick, and the river +choked up with the dead. Below, the broad Loire rolled slowly by between +its green banks. Little boys, in the costume of Cupid, were riding great +horses in to bathe after the day's work. The grey roofs of the town +nestled to the hillside, and far away stretched the summer landscape, +full of vague suggestions of new scenes and pleasures to the pilgrims. + +'We start for Chenonceaux at seven in the morning; so, ladies, I beg +that you will be ready punctually,' was the command issued by Amanda, as +they went to their rooms, after a festive dinner of what Lavinia called +'earth-worms and cacti,' not being fond of stewed brains, baked eels, or +thistles and pigweed chopped up in oil. + +Such a droll night as the wanderers spent! No locks on the doors and no +bells. Stairs leading straight up the gallery from the courtyard, carts +going and coming, soft footsteps stealing up and down, whispers that +sounded suspicious (though they were only orders to kill chickens and +pick salad for the morrow), and a ghostly whistle that disturbed +Lavinia so much, she at last draped herself in the green coverlet, and +went boldly forth upon the balcony to see what it meant. + +She intended to demand silence in French that would strike terror to the +soul of the bravest native. But when she saw that poor, dear, +hard-worked _garcon_ blacking boots by the light of the moon, her heart +melted with pity; and, resolving to give him an extra fee, she silently +retired to her stone-floored bower, and fell asleep in a stuffy little +bed, whose orange curtains filled her dreams with volcanic eruptions and +conflagrations of the most lurid description. + +At seven, an open carriage with a stout pair of horses and a sleepy +driver rolled out of the court-yard of the Lion d'Or. Within it sat +three ladies, who gazed at one another with cheerful countenances, and +surveyed the world with an air of bland content, beautiful to behold. + +'I am fairly faint with happiness,' sighed Matilda, as they drove +through fields scarlet with poppies, starred with daisies, or yellow +with buttercups, while birds piped gaily, and trees wore their early +green. + +'You did not eat any breakfast. That accounts for it. Have a crust, do,' +said Amanda, who seldom stirred without a good, sweet crust or two; for +they were easy to carry, wholesome to chew, and always ready at a +moment's notice. + +'Let us save our "entusymusy" till we get to the _chateau_, and enjoy +this lovely drive in a peaceful manner,' said Lavinia, still a little +sleepy after her adventures in the glimpses of the moon. + +So, for an hour or two, they rolled along the smooth road, luxuriating +in the summer sights and sounds about them; the wayside cottages, with +women working in the gardens; villages clustered round some tiny, +picturesque church; windmills whirling on the distant hill-tops; +vineyards full of peasants tying up the young vines, or trudging by with +baskets on their backs, heaped with green cuttings for the goats at +home. Old men, breaking stone by the roadside, touched their red caps to +the pilgrims, jolly boys shouted at them from the cherry trees, and +little children peeped from behind the rose-bushes blooming everywhere. + +Soon, glimpses of the winding Cher began to appear, then an avenue of +stately trees, and then, standing directly in the river, rose the lovely +_chateau_ built for Diane de Poictiers by her royal lover. Leaving the +carriage at the lodge, our sight-seers crossed the moat, and, led by a +wooden-faced girl with a lisp, entered the famous pleasure-house, which +its present owner (a pensive man in black velvet, who played fitfully on +a French-horn in a pepper-pot tower) is carefully restoring to its +former splendour. + +The great picture-gallery was the chief attraction; and beginning with +Diane herself--a tall, simpering baggage, with a bow, hounds, crescent, +and a blue sash for drapery--they were led through a rapid review of all +sorts of worthies and unworthies, relics and rubbish, without end. +Portraits are always interesting. Even Lavinia, who 'had no soul for +Art,' as Mat said, looked with real pleasure at a bass-relief of Agnes +of Sorel, and pictures of Montaigne, Rabelais, Ninon d'Enclos, Madame de +Sevigne, and miniatures of La Fayette and Ben Franklin. The latter +gentleman looked rather out of place in such society; but, perhaps, his +good old face preached the Dianes and Ninons a silent sermon. His plain +suit certainly was a relief to the eye, wearied with periwigged sages +and bejewelled sinners. + +Here was the little theatre where Rousseau's plays were acted. Here were +the gilded chairs in which kings had sat, swords heroes had held, books +philosophers had pored over, mirrors that had reflected famous beauties, +and painted walls that had looked down on royal revels long ago. + +The old kitchen had a fireplace big enough for a dozen cooks to have +spoiled gallons of broth in, queer pots and pans, and a handy little +window, out of which they could fish at any moment, for the river ran +below. + +The chapel, chambers, balconies, and terraces were all being repaired; +for, thanks to George Sand's grandmother, who owned the place in the +time of the Revolution, it was spared out of respect to her, and is +still a charming relic of the past. + +The ladies went down the mossy steps, leading from the gallery to the +further shore, and, lying under the oaks, whiled away the noon-time by +re-peopling the spot with the shapes that used to inhabit it. A very +happy hour it was, dreaming there by the little river, with the scent of +new-mown hay in the fresh wind, and before them the airy towers and +gables of the old _chateau_ rising from the stream like a vision of +departed splendour, love, and romance. + +Having seen every thing, and bought photographs _ad libitum_ of the +wooden-faced lisper, who cheated awfully, the pilgrims drove away, +satiated with relics, royalty, and '_regardez_.' + +Another night in the stony-hearted, orange-coloured rooms, with the +sleepless _garcon_ sweeping and murmuring outside like a Banshee, while +the hens roosted sociably in the gallery, the horses seemed to be +champing directly under the bed, and the dead Huguenots bumping down +upon the roof from the castle-walls. Another curious meal wafted from +the bowels of the earth and cooled by all the airs that blow,--then the +shawl-straps were girded anew, the carriage (a half-grown omnibus with +the jaundice) mounted, the farewell bows and adieux received, and forth +rumbled the duchesses _en route_ for Blois. + +'My heart is rent at leaving that lovely _chateau_,' said Mat, as they +crossed the bridge. + +'I mourn the earth-worms, the cacti, and the tireless "gossoon,"' added +Amanda, who appreciated French cookery and had enjoyed confidences with +Adolphe. + +'The cats, the cats, the cats! I could die happy if I had one,' +murmured Lavinia; and with these laments they left the town behind them. + +Any thing hotter than Blois, with its half dried-up river, dusty +boulevards, and baked streets, can hardly be imagined. But these +indomitable women 'did' the church and the castle without flinching. The +former was pronounced a failure, but the latter was entirely +satisfactory. The Emperor was having it restored in the most splendid +manner. The interior seemed rather fresh and gay when contrasted with +the time-worn exterior, but the stamped leathern hangings, tiled floors, +emblazoned beams, and carved fireplaces were quite correct. Dragons and +crowns, porcupines and salamanders, monograms and flowers, shone +everywhere in a maze of scarlet and gold, brown and silver, purple and +white. + +Here the historical Amanda revelled, and quenched the meek old guide +with a burst of information which caused him to stare humbly at 'the mad +English.' + +'_Regardez_, my dears, the chamber and oratory of Catherine de Medicis, +who here plotted the death of the Duc de Guise. This is the cabinet of +her son, Henri III., where he gave the daggers to the gentlemen who were +to rid him of his enemy, the hero of the barricades. This is the Salle +des Gardes, where Guise was leaning on the chimney-piece when summoned +to the king. This is the little room at the entrance of which he was set +upon in the act of lifting the drapery, and stabbed with forty wounds.' + +'Oh! how horrid!' gasped Matilda, staring about as if she saw the +sanguinary gentlemen approaching. + +'So interesting! Do go on!' cried Lavinia, who was fond of woe, and +enjoyed horrors. + +'This is the hall where the body lay for two hours, covered with a cloak +and a cross of straw on the breast,' cut in Amanda, as the guide opened +his mouth. 'Here the king came to look upon the corpse of the once +mighty Henri le Balafre, and spurned it with his foot, saying, I shall +not translate it for you, Mat,--"_Je ne le croyais pas aussi grand_" and +then ordered it to be burnt, and the ashes cast into the river. Remember +the date, I implore you, December 23, 1588.' + +As Amanda paused for breath the little man took the word, and rattled +off a jumble of facts and fictions about the window from which Marie de +Medicis lowered herself when imprisoned here by her dutiful son, Louis +XIII. + +'I wish the entire lot had been tossed out after her, for I do think +kings and queens are a set of rascals,' cried Mat, scandalized by the +royal iniquities to which she had been listening, till the hair stood +erect upon her innocent head. + +The Salle des Etats was being prepared for the trial of the men who had +lately attempted the Emperor's life, and a most theatrical display of +justice was to be presented to the public. The richly carved stair-case, +with Francis the First's salamanders squirming up and down it, was a +relic worth seeing; but the parched pilgrims found the little pots of +clotted cream quite as interesting, and much more refreshing, when they +were served up at lunch (the pots, not the pilgrims), each covered with +a fresh vine-leaf, and delicately flavoured with butter-cups and +clover. + +Amanda won the favour of the stately _garcon_ by praising them warmly, +and he kept bringing in fresh relays, and urging her to eat a third, a +fourth, with a persuasive dignity hard to resist. + +'But yes, Mademoiselle, one more, for nowhere else can _creme de St. +Gervais_ be achieved. They are desired, ardently desired, in Paris; but, +alas! it is impossible to convey them so far, such is their exquisite +delicacy.' + +How many the appreciative ladies consumed, the muse saith not; but the +susceptible heart of the great _garcon_ was deeply touched, and it was +with difficulty that they finally escaped from his attentions. + +On being presented with a cast-off camp-stool, and a pair of old boots +to dispose of, he instantly appropriated them as graceful souvenirs, +and clasping his hands, declared with effusion that he would seat his +infant upon the so-useful stool, and offer the charming boots to Madame +my wife, who would weep for joy at this touching _tableau_. + +With this melodramatic valedictory, he suffered the guests to depart, +and the last they saw of him, he was still waving a dirty napkin as he +stood at the gate, big, bland, and devoted to the end, though the drops +stood thick upon his manly brow, and the sun glared fiercely on his +uncovered head. + +'I shall write an article on _garcons_ when I get home,' said Lavinia, +who was always planning great works and never executing them. 'We have +known such a nice variety, and all have been so good to us that we owe +them a tribute. You remember the dear, tow-headed one at Morlaix, who +insisted on handing us dishes of snails, and papers of pins with which +to pick out the repulsive delicacy?' + +'Yes, and the gloomy one with black linen sleeves who glowered at us, +sighed gustily in our ears, and anointed us with gravy as he waited at +table,' added Amanda. + +'Don't forget the dark one with languid, Spanish eyes and curly hair, on +the boat going down the Rance. How picturesque and polite he was, to be +sure, as he kept picking up our beer-bottles when they rolled about the +deck!' put in Mat, who had the dark youth safely in her sketch-book, +with eyes as big and black as blots. + +'The solemn one at Tours, who squirted seltzer-water out of window at +the beggars, without a smile, was very funny. So was the little one with +grubby hands, who tottered under the big dishes, but insisted on +carrying the heaviest.' + +'The fast-trotter at Amboise won my heart, he was so supernaturally +lively, and so full of hurried amiability. A very dear _garcon_ indeed.' + +'Be sure you remember the superb being at Brest, whose eyes threatened +to fall out of his head at exciting moments. Also, Flabot's chubby boy +who adored Mat, and languished at her, over the onions, like a Cupid in +a blue blouse.' + +'I will do justice to everyone,' and Lavinia took copious notes on the +spot. + +Orleans was a prim, tidy town, and after taking a look at the fine +statue of the Maid, and laughing at some funny little soldiers drumming +wildly in the _Place_, our travellers went on to Bourges. + +'This, now, is a nice, dingy old place, and we will take our walks +abroad directly, for it looks like rain, and we must make the most of +our time and money,' said Amanda; + + + 'For, though on pleasure she was bent, + She had a frugal mind.' + + +Forth they went, as soon as dinner was over, and found the waters all +abroad also; for every man was playing away with a hose, every woman +scrubbing her door-steps, and the children gaily playing leap-frog in +the puddles. + +'Nasty, damp place!' croaked the Raven, obscuring her disgusted +countenance behind the inevitable grey cloud, and gathering her garments +about her, as they hopped painfully over the wet stones, for sidewalks +there were none. + +'I find it refreshing after the dust and heat. Please detach Mat from +that shop window, and come on, or we shall see nothing before dark,' +replied the ever amiable Amanda. + +Matilda _would_ glue herself to every jeweller's window, and remain +fascinated by the richness there displayed, till led away by force. On +this occasion, however, her mania led to good results; for, at the ninth +window, as her keepers were about to drag her away, a ring of peculiar +antiquity caught their eyes simultaneously, and, to Mat's amazement, +both plunged into the little shop, clamouring to see it. A pale emerald, +surrounded by diamond chippings set in silver, with a wide gold band cut +in a leafy pattern, composed this gem of price. + +'A Francis First ring, sold by a noble but impoverished family, and only +a hundred francs, Madame,' said the man, politely anxious to cheat the +fair foreigners out of four times its value. + +'Can't afford it,' and Lavinia retired. But the shrewd Amanda, with +inimitable shrugs and pensive sighs, regretted that it was so costly. 'A +sweet ring; but, alas! forty francs is all I have to give.' + +The man was desolated to think that eighty francs was the lowest he was +permitted to receive. Would Madame call again, and perhaps it might be +arranged? + +Ah, no! Madame is forced to depart early, to return no more. + +_Mon Dieu!_ how afflicting! In that case, sixty would be possible for so +rare a relic. + +Madame is _abime_, but it is not to be. Forty is the utmost; therefore +_Merci_, and _Bonjour_. + +'Hold! Where shall it be sent?' cries the man, giving in, but not +confessing it, with awkward frankness. + +A thousand thanks! Madame will pay for it at once; and laying down the +money, she sweetly bows herself away, with the ring upon her finger. + +'What a people!' ejaculated Lavinia, who always felt like a fly in a +cobweb when she attempted to deal with the French, in her blunt, +confiding way. + +'It is great fun,' answered Amanda, flashing her ring with satisfaction +after the skirmish. 'Will Madame kindly direct me to the house of +Jacques Coeur?' she added, addressing an old woman clattering by in +_sabots_. + +'Allez toujours a droit en vous appuyant sur la gauche,' replied the +native, beaming and bowing till the streamers of her cap waved in the +wind. + +They followed these directions, but failed to find the place, and +applied to another old woman eating soup on her door-step. + +'Suivez le chemin droit en tombant a gauche' was the reply, with a wave +of the spoon to all the points of the compass. + +'Great heavens, what a language!' cried Lavinia, who had been vainly +endeavouring to 'support' herself, as she 'fell' in every direction over +and into the full gutters. + +The house was found at last, an ancient, mysterious place, with a very +curious window, carved to look as if the shutters were half open, and +from behind one peeped a man's head, from the other a woman's, both so +life-like that it quite startled the strangers. Murray informed the +observers that these servants are supposed to be looking anxiously for +their master's return, Jacques having suddenly disappeared, after +lending much money to the king, who took that mediaeval way of paying his +debts. + +Service was being held in the church, and the ladies went in to rest +and listen, for the music was fine. Much red and white drapery gave the +sanctuary the appearance of a gay drawing-room, and the profane Lavinia +compared the officiating clergy to a set of red furniture. The biggest +priest was the sofa, four deacons the arm-chairs, and three little boys +the foot-stools, all upholstered in crimson silk, and neatly covered +with lace tidies. + +As if to rebuke her frivolity, a lovely fresh voice from the hidden +choir suddenly soared up like a lark, singing so wonderfully that a +great stillness fell on the listeners, and while it lasted the tawdry +church and its mummery were quite forgotten, as the ear led the heart up +that ladder of sweet sounds to heaven. Even when the others joined in, +one could still hear that child-voice soaring and singing far above the +rest, as if some little angel were playing with the echoes among the +arches of the roof. + +A proud native informed the strangers that it was a poor boy whose +exquisite voice was the pride of the town, and would in time make his +fortune. As the choir-boys came racing down stairs after service, +pulling off their dingy robes as they ran, Lavinia tried to pick out the +little angel, but gave it up in despair, for a more uninteresting set of +bullet-headed, copper-coloured sprigs she never saw. + +Rain drove the wanderers back to the hotel, and there they made a night +of it. Ordering a fire in the largest of the three stuffy little cells +which they occupied, they set about being comfortable, for it had turned +chilly, and a furious wind disported itself in and out through +numberless crevices. Lavinia was inspired to mull some wine, and brewed +a mild jorum that cheered, but did not inebriate. Amanda produced her +Shakspeare, and read aloud while the simmering and sipping went on. +Matilda sketched the noble commander as she lay upon the sofa, with her +Egyptian profile in fine relief, and her aristocratic red slippers +gracefully visible. A large grey cat of a social turn joined the party, +and added much to the domesticity of the scene by sitting on the hearth +in a cosy bunch and purring blissfully. + +'Now it is your turn to propose something for the general amusement, +Mandy,' said Mat, when the beakers were drained dry and the Montagues +and Capulets comfortably buried. + +'Let us attend to the culture of our nails,' replied Amanda, producing +her _polissoir_, powder, and knife. + +Three cups of tepid water were produced, and the company sat eagerly +soaking their finger tips for a time, after which much pruning and +polishing went on, to the great bewilderment of Puss, who poked her own +paws into the cups, as if trying to test the advantages of this +remarkable American custom. + +'What _would_ our blessed mother say if she saw us now?' said Mat, +proudly examining ten pointed pink nails at the tips of her long +fingers. + +'People told us we should get demoralised if we came abroad, and this is +the first step on the downward road,' returned Lavinia, shaking her head +over her own backslidings. + +'No: it's the second step. We ate calves' brains for dinner, and what +I'm sure were frogs' legs with mushrooms. You know we vowed we wouldn't +touch their horrid messes, but I really begin to like them,' confessed +Mat, who had pronounced every dish at dinner 'De-licious!' + +'Ha! I will write a poem!' cried Amanda, and leaping from the sofa she +grasped her pen, flung open her portfolio, and in a few brief moments +produced these inspired stanzas. + + + THE DOWNWARD ROAD. + + Two Yankee maids of simple mien, + And earnest, high endeavour, + Come sailing to the land of France, + To escape the winter weather. + When first they reached that vicious shore + They scorned the native ways, + Refused to eat the native grub, + Or ride in native shays. + 'Oh, for the puddings of our home! + Oh, for some simple food! + These horrid, greasy, unknown things, + How can you think them good?' + Thus to Amanda did they say, + An uncomplaining maid, + Who ate in peace and answered not + Until one day they said-- + How _can_ you eat this garbage vile + Against all nature's laws? + How _can_ you eat your nails in points, + Until they look like claws?' + Then patiently Amanda said, + 'My loves, just wait a while, + The time will come you will not think + The nails or victuals vile.' + A month has passed, and now we see + That prophecy fulfilled; + The ardour of those carping maids + Is most completely chilled. + Matilda was the first to fall, + Lured by the dark gossoon, + In awful dishes one by one + She dipped her timid spoon. + She promised for one little week + To let her nails grow long, + But added in a saving clause + She thought it very wrong. + Thus did she take the fatal plunge, + Did compromise with sin, + Then all was lost; from that day forth + French ways were sure to win. + Lavinia followed in her train, + And ran the self-same road, + Ate sweet-bread first, then chopped-up brains, + Eels, mushrooms, pickled toad. + She cries, 'How flat the home _cuisine_ + After this luscious food! + Puddings and brutal joints of meat, + That once we fancied good!' + And now in all their leisure hours + One resource never fails, + Morning and noon and night they sit + And polish up their nails. + Then if in one short fatal month + A change like this appears, + Oh, what will be the next result + When they have stayed for years? + + +Tremendous applause greeted this masterly effort, and other poems were +produced with the rapidity of genius by Amanda and Lavinia, each writing +the alternate verse, _a la_ Beaumont and Fletcher, which gave a peculiar +charm to these effusions. + +When Matilda was called upon for a festive suggestion, she promptly +replied, with a graceful yawn:-- + +'Let's go to bed.' + +The meeting, therefore, broke up, and the younger ladies retired to +their cells in good order. But the Raven, excited by the jocund hour, +continued to rustle and patter about the warm room in a state of +inexpressible hilarity, most exasperating to the others, who desired to +sleep. Not content with upsetting the fire-irons occasionally, singing +to the cat, and slamming the furniture about, this restless bird kept +appearing first at one cell door with a conundrum, then at the other +with a joke, or insisted on telling funny stories in her den, till the +exhausted victims implored her to take an opium pill and subside before +they became furious. She obeyed, and after a few relapses into wandering +and joking, finally slumbered. + +Then occurred the one thrilling adventure of this happy journey. In the +darkest hour before dawn Mat awoke, heard a suspicious noise in the +middle room, and asked if Lavinia was on the rampage again. No reply, +and, listening, a low, rasping, rustling sound was heard. + +'Thieves, of course. Our watches and purses are on the table, and +Lavinia has probably forgotten to lock the door. I must attend to this.' +And up rose the dauntless Matilda, who feared neither man nor ghost. + +Grasping her dagger, hitherto used as a paper cutter, but always eager +to be steeped in the gore of brigands, robbers, or beasts of prey, she +crept to the door and peeped in. The pale glow of the fire showed her a +dark figure crouching in the opposite door-way. The click of a pistol +caught her ear, but dodging quickly, the heroic girl cried sternly from +the shelter of Lavinia's bed-curtain,-- + +'Come out, or I'll fire!' + +'Mio Dio! is it only you?' answered a familiar voice, as Amanda, +shrouded in a waterproof, sprang up and lit a match. + +'What are you prowling about for?' demanded Mat. + +'To blow your brains out, apparently,' answered Mandy, lowering her +arms. 'Why are you abroad?' + +'To stab you, I fancy,' and Mat sheathed her dagger balked of its prey. + +'I heard a noise.' + +'So did I.' + +'Let's see what it is,' and lighting a candle, the fair Amazons looked +boldly about the shadowy room. + +Lavinia lay wrapt in slumber, with only the end of her sarcastic nose +visible beyond the misty cloud that enveloped her venerable countenance. +The outer door was fast, and the shutters closed. No booted feet +appeared below the curtains, no living eyes rolled awfully in the +portrait of the salmon-coloured saint upon the wall. Yet the rustling +and rasping went on, and with one impulse the defenders of sleeping +innocence made for the table in the corner. + +There was the midnight robber at his fell work!--the big cat peacefully +gnawing the cold chicken, and knocking about the treasured crusts +dragged from the luncheon-basket carefully packed for an early start. + +'Wake and behold the ruin your pet has made!' + +'We might be murdered or carried off a dozen times over without her +knowing it. Here's a nice duenna!' + +And the indignant ladies shook, pinched, and shouted till the hapless +sleeper opened one eye, and wrathfully demanded what the matter was. + +They told her with eloquent brevity, but instead of praising their +prowess, and thanking them with fervour, the ungrateful woman shut her +eye again, merely saying with drowsy irascibility,-- + +'You told me to go to sleep, and I went; next time fight it out among +yourselves, but don't wake me.' + +'Throw the cat out of window and go to bed, Mat,' and Amanda uncocked +her pistol with the resignation of one who had learned not to expect +gratitude in this world. + +'Touch a hair of that dear creature and I'll raise the house!' cried +Lavinia, roused at once. + +Puss, who had viewed the fray sitting bolt upright on the table, now +settled the vexed question by skipping into Lavinia's arms, feeling with +the instinct of her race that her surest refuge was there. Mat retired +in silent disgust, and the Raven fell asleep soothed by the grateful +purring of her furry friend. + +'Last night's experiences have given me a longing for adventures,' said +Mat, as they journeyed on next morning. + +'I've had quite enough of that sort,' growled Lavinia. + +'Let us read our papers, and wait for time to send us something in the +way of a lark,' and Amanda obscured herself in a grove of damp +newspapers. + +Lavinia also took one and read bits aloud to Mat, who was mending her +gloves, bright yellow, four-buttoned, and very dirty. + +'Translate as you go along--I do so hate that gabble,' begged Mat, who +would _not_ improve her mind. + +So Lavinia gave her a free translation which convulsed Amanda behind her +paper. Coming to this passage, 'Plusieurs faits graves sont arrives,' +the reader rendered it, 'Several made graves have arrived,' adding, +'Dear me, what singular customs the French have, to be sure!' A little +farther on she read, 'Un portrait de feu Monsieur mon pere,' adding, 'A +fire portrait means a poker sketch, I suppose.' + +Here a smothered giggle from Amanda caused the old lady to say 'Bless +you!' thinking the dear girl had sneezed. + +'I must have some blue cotton to mend my dress with. Remind me to get +some at Moulins. By the way, how do you ask for it in French?' said Mat, +surveying a rent in her skirts. + +'Oh, just go in and say, "Avez-vous le fils bleu?"' replied Lavinia, +with a superior air. + +'A blue son! My precious granny, what will you say next?' murmured +Amanda, faint with suppressed laughter. + +'What are you muttering about?' asked Granny, sharply. + +'Trying to recall those fine lines in "Wilhelm Meister;" don't you +remember? "Wer nie sein Brod mit Thraenen ass,"' replied Amanda, polite +even at the last gasp. + +'I read my Goethe in decent English, and don't know anything about +training asses,' returned Lavinia, severely. + +That was too much! Amanda cast her paper down, and had her laugh out, as +the only means of saving herself from suffocation. The others gazed upon +her in blank amazement, till she found breath enough to enlighten them, +when such peals of merriment arose, that the guard popped his head in to +see if he had not unwittingly shipped a load of lunatics. + +'That was splendid! But now we must sober down, for a gorgeous being is +about to get in,' said Amanda, as they stopped at a station. + +The gorgeous being entered, and found three demure ladies rapt in +newspapers. They apparently saw nothing but the words before them; yet +every one of them knew that the handsome young man had bowed in the most +superior manner; also, that he was dressed in brown velvet, long +gaiters, buttoned to the knee, a ravishing blue tie, buff gloves, and +pouch and powder-horn slung over his shoulder. Also, that a servant with +two dogs and a gun had touched his hat and said, 'Oui, monsieur le +comte,' as he shut the door. + +A slight thrill pervaded the statues as this fact was made known, and +each began to wonder how the elegant aristocrat would behave. To say +that he stared, feebly expresses the fixity of his noble gaze, as it +rested in turn upon the three faces opposite. When satisfied, he also +produced a paper and began to read. But Matilda caught a big, black eye +peering over the sheet more than once, as she peered over the top of her +own. + +'I don't like him. Remember, we don't speak French,' whispered the +discreet Amanda. + +'I can swear that I don't,' said Lavinia, with an irrepressible smile, +as she remembered the 'blue son.' + +'The language of the eye is not forbidden me, and I can't sit baking +under a newspaper all the way,' returned Matilda, whose blond curls had +evidently met with the great creature's approval. + +A slight pucker about the Comte's lips caused a thrill of horror to +pervade the ladies, as Amanda murmured under her breath,-- + +'He may understand English!' + +'Then we are lost!' returned the tragic Raven. + +'Wish he did. I really pine for a little attention. It gives such a +relish to life,' said Matilda, thinking regretfully of the devoted +beings left behind. + +The prudent Amanda and the stern Lavinia steeled their hearts, and iced +their countenances to the comely gentleman. But the social Matilda could +not refrain from responding to his polite advances, with a modest +'Merci, Monsieur,' as he drew the curtain for her, a smile when he +picked up the unruly curling-stick, and her best bow as he offered his +paper with a soft glance of the black eyes. + +In vain Amanda tried to appal her with awful frowns; in vain Lavinia +trod warningly upon her foot: she paid no heed, and left them no hope +but the saving remembrance that she couldn't talk French. + +'If the man don't get out soon, I'll tie her up in my shawl, and tell +him she is mad,' resolved Lavinia, whose spinster soul was always +scandalised at the faintest approach to a flirtation. + +'If the man does speak English, Mat will have it all her own way,' +thought Amanda, remembering the vow imposed upon the reckless girl. + +Alas, alas for the anxious twain! The man did _not_ get out soon, the +man _did_ speak English, and in ten minutes Matilda was off, like a colt +without a halter. The anguish of her keepers added zest to the fun, and +finding that the gentleman evidently thought her the lady of the party +(owing to the yellow gloves, smartest hat, and irreproachable boots), +and the others in sober gray and black, were maid and duenna, this +reprehensible girl kept up the joke, put on airs, and enjoyed that +flirtatious hour to her heart's content. + +As if to punish the others for their distrust, and to reward Mat's +interest in him, M. le Comte devoted himself to Mademoiselle, telling +her about his hunting, his estate, and finished by inviting her and her +party to call and view his _chateau_, if they ever paused at the town, +which had the honour of being his summer residence. Mat responded to all +these courtesies with confiding sweetness, and when at length he was +desolated at being obliged to tear himself away, she + + + 'Gave sigh for sigh,' + + +as he retired with a superb bow, a gallant 'Bon voyage, mesdames,' and a +wicked twinkle of the black eyes as they rested on the faces of the +frozen ladies. + +'I got rather the best of the joke in that little affair: didn't I?' +said Mat, gayly, as the brown velvet Adonis vanished. + +'You are a disgrace to your party and your nation,' sternly responded +Amanda. + +Lavinia spoke not, but shook her little sister till the hat flew off her +head, and she had only breath enough left to declare with unquenched +ardour that she would do it again the very next chance she got. + +Lectures, laughter, and longings for 'my Comte' beguiled the remainder +of the way, and _Moulang_ (as Mat pronounced Moulins) was reached after +a pleasant trip through a green country, picturesque with the white +cattle of Berri. There was not much to see, but the town was so quaint +and quiet, that Amanda was seized with one of her remarkable projects. + +'Let us find a little house somewhere and stay a week or two. I fain +would rest and ruminate among the white cows for a while; have a little +washing done, and slowly prepare to emerge into the world again. Lyons +is our next point, and there we must bid adieu to freedom and +shawl-straps.' + +'Very well, dear,' responded Lavinia, with resignation, having learned +that the best way to curb these aberrations of genius was to give in, +and let circumstances prove their impracticability. + +So Amanda inquired of the landlady if such a rustic cot could be found. +Whereupon the dingy little woman clasped her dingy little hands, and +declared that she had exactly the charming retreat desired. Truly yes, +and she would at once make her toilette, order out the carriage, and +display this lovely villa to the dear ladies. + +With many misgivings the three squeezed themselves into a square +clothes-basket on wheels, drawn by an immense, bony, white horse, driven +by a striped boy, and adorned by Madame, in a towering bonnet, laden +with amazing fruit, flowers, and vegetables. Lavinia counted three +tomatoes, a bunch of grapes, poppies and pansies, wheat ears and +blackberry-vines, a red, red rose, and one small lettuce, with glass +dewdrops and green grubs lavishly sprinkled over it. A truly superb +_chapeau_ and a memorable one. + +Away they trundled through stony streets, dusty roads, waste grounds, +marshy meadows, and tumbled-down pleasure-gardens, till the +clothes-basket turned down a lane, and the bony horse stopped at length +before a door in a high red wall. + +'Behold!' cried madame, leading them with much clanking of keys, into a +cabbage-garden. A small tool-house stood among the garden-stuff, with +brick floors, very dirty windows, and the atmosphere of a tomb. Bags of +seed, wheel-barrows, onions, and dust cumbered the ground. Empty bottles +stood on the old table, cigar ends lay thick upon the hearth, and a +trifle of gay crockery adorned the mantel-piece. + +'See, then, here is a _salon_, so cool, so calm. Above is a room with +beds, and around the garden where the ladies can sit all day. A maid can +achieve the breakfast here, and my carriage can come for them to dine at +the hotel. Is it not charmingly arranged? + +'It is simply awful,' said Mat, aghast at the prospect. + +'Settle it as you like, dear, only I'm afraid I couldn't stay _very_ +long on account of the dampness,' observed Lavinia, cheerfully, as she +put a hoe-handle under her feet and wiped the blue mould from a +three-legged chair. + +'It won't do, so I'll tell her you are an invalid and very particular,' +said Amanda, with another inspiration, as she led the landlady forth to +break the blow tenderly. + +'My neuralgia is useful if it isn't ornamental; and what a comfort that +is!' said Lavinia, as she lightly threw a large cockroach out of window, +dodged a wasp, and crushed a fat spider. + +And so it was in many ways. If the party wanted a car to themselves, +Granny was ordered to lie down and groan dismally, which caused other +travellers to shun the poor invalid. If rooms did not suit, suffering +Madame _must_ have sun or perish. Late lunches, easy carriages, extra +blankets, every sort of comfort was for her, whether she wanted them or +not. + +'Shall I be sick or well?' was always the first question when an +invitation came, for 'my sister's delicate health' was the standing +excuse when parties palled, or best gowns were not get-at-able. + +While Amanda conferred with the hostess among the cabbages, Mat +discovered that the picturesque white cattle in the field close by were +extremely fierce and unsocial; that there was no house in sight, and the +venerable horse and shay would never sustain many trips to and fro to +dinner at the hotel. Lavinia poked about the house, and soon satisfied +herself that it abounded in every species of what Fanny Kemble calls +'entomological inconvenience,' and an atmosphere admirably calculated to +introduce cholera to the inhabitants of Moulins. + +'It is all settled; let us return,' said Amanda, appearing at last with +an air of triumph, having appeased the old lady by eating green +currants, and admiring an earwiggy arbour, commanding a fine view of a +marsh where frogs were piping and cool mists rising as the sun set. + +The chickens were tough at dinner, the wine bitter, the bread sour, but +no one reproached Amanda as the cause of this change. And when the +hostess bowed them out, next day, without a smile, they drove away, +conscious only of deep gratitude that they were saved from leaving their +bones to moulder among the cabbages of Moulins. + +'Now we return to civilisation, good clothes, and Christian food,' said +Lavinia, as they surveyed their fine rooms at the Grand Hotel, Lyons. + +'Likewise letters and luggage,' added Amanda, as the maid brought in a +bundle of letters, and two porters came bumping up with the trunks. + +'Well, I've enjoyed the trip immensely, though nothing very remarkable +has happened,' said Mat, diving into her private ark with satisfaction. + +'I should like to wander in the wilderness for years, if I could hear +from my family at intervals,' said Lavinia, briskly breaking open the +plump, travel-worn letters. + +'Then you consider our trip a success?' asked Amanda, pausing in the act +of removing the dust from her noble countenance. + +'A perfect success! We have done what we planned, had no mishaps, seen +and enjoyed much, quarrelled not at all, laughed a great deal, and been +altogether festive, thanks to you. I shall hang my shawl-strap on the +castle wall as a trophy of the prowess of my Amanda, and the success of +the last Declaration of American Independence,' replied Lavinia. + +'I, also,' said Mat, opening her bundle for the one hundreth and last +time. + +'You do me proud; I humbly thank you,' and with a superb curtsy the +commander-in-chief modestly retired behind the towel. + + + + +IV. + +_SWITZERLAND._ + + +'My children, listen to the words of wisdom ere it is too late,' began +Lavinia, as the three sat about in dressing-gowns after a busy day in +Geneva. + +'We listen, go on, Granny,' replied the irreverent girls. + +'If we stay here a week longer, we are ruined. Firstly, this Metropole +is an expensive hotel; also noisy and full of fashionable people, whom I +hate. Secondly, the allurements of the jewellers' shops are too much for +us, and we had better flee before we spend all our money. Thirdly, if +war does break out along the Rhine, as rumour now predicts, Geneva will +be crammed with people whose plans, like ours, are upset; therefore we +had better skip across the lake, and secure a comfortable place for +ourselves at Vevey or Montreaux, for we shall probably have to winter +there.' + +'Hear, hear! we will do it, and if Italy doesn't get over her revolution +in time for us to go to Rome, we must content ourselves with some nook +in this refuge for all wanderers on the face of the continent,' said +Amanda. + +'But I like Geneva so much. It's such fun to watch the splendid waiters +file in at dinner, looking like young gentlemen ready for a ball; the +house is so gay, and the shops!--never did I dream of such richness +before. Do stay another week and buy a few more things,' prayed Matilda, +who spent most of her time gloating over the jewelry, and tempting her +sister to buy all manner of useless gauds. + +'No: we will go to-morrow. I know of several good _pensions_ at Vevey, +so we are sure of getting in somewhere. Pack at once, and let us flee,' +returned Lavinia, who, having bought a watch, a ring, and a locket, felt +that it was time to go. + +And go they did, settling for a month at Bex, a little town up the +valley of the Rhone, remarkable for its heat, its dirt, its lovely +scenery, and the remarkable perfection to which its inhabitants had +brought the _goitre_, nearly every one being blessed with an unsightly +bunch upon the neck, which they decorated with ribbons and proudly +displayed to the disgusted traveller. + +Here in the rambling old Hotel des Bains, with its balconies, gardens, +and little rooms, the wanderers reposed for a time. A Polish countess, +with her lover, daughter, and governess, conferred distinction upon the +house. An old Hungarian count, who laboured under the delusion that he +descended in a direct line from Zenobia, also adorned the scene. An +artist with two pretty boys, named Alfred Constable Landseer Reynolds +and Allston West Cuyp Vandyke, afforded Matilda much satisfaction. + +English mammas with prim daughters of thirty or so still tied to their +apron-strings were to be found, of course, for they are everywhere; also +wandering French folk raving about the war one minute and tearing their +hair over bad coffee the next. + +Amanda read newspapers and talked politics with the old count; while +Lavinia, with a paper bag of apricots under one arm and a volume of +Disraeli's novels under the other, spent her shining hours wandering +from balcony to garden, enjoying the heat, which gave her a short +respite from her woes. + +While here Matilda, in company with a kindred soul, made the ascent of +Mount St. Bernard with the pleasing accompaniments of wind, rain, +thunder, and lightning. But the irrepressible Americans went on in spite +of warnings from more prudent travellers who stopped half-way. With one +mule and a guide for escort, the two enthusiasts waded swollen streams +with ice-cold water up to their knees, climbed slippery roads, faced +what seemed a whirlwind at that height, and, undaunted by the uproar of +the elements, pressed on to the Hospice, to the great admiration of +Moritz, the guide, who told them he had seldom taken men up in such a +storm, never ladies. + +At the Hospice the dripping lasses found a hospitable welcome from the +handsome monk who does the honours there. Being provided with dry +garments, and having much fun over the tall Matilda draped in skirts of +many colours in the attempt to get any long enough, they were fed and +warmed by the engaging monk, who entertained them as they sat about a +roaring fire while the storm raged without, with thrilling tales of the +travellers they had saved, the wild adventures they had known in the +dreadful winter time, and the gifts bestowed upon them by grateful +travellers or generous guests. + +The Prince of Wales had sent them a piano, and many fine pictures +ornamented the walls from famous persons. An old English lady who spends +her summers up there seemed much amused at the prank of the girls, and +evidently wondered what their guardians were about. + +A merry and memorable evening; and when, on going to their cells, they +found the beds nicely warmed, Matilda exclaimed,-- + +'This is the most delightful of the romantic and the comfortable I ever +saw. Alps and warming-pans taken "jintly" are delicious!' + +At five next morning they were wakened by the chanting of the invisible +brotherhood, and went down to the chapel for mass. On going out for a +clamber on the rocks, seven or eight great dogs came baying and leaping +about them, licking their hands and smelling their garments to see if +they were hurt. Looking into their bright, benevolent eyes, one could +well believe the wonderful tales told of their courage and sagacity. +Though so powerful and large they were gentle as kittens, and the +dog-loving girls were proud to receive and return the caresses of these +four-footed heroes. + +Leaving a grateful _souvenir_ in the box intended to receive whatever +guests choose to leave, the girls descended in the morning sunshine, +finding it a very different experience from the ascent. All was clear +and calm now,--beautiful and grand; and only pausing at M. to send back +a fine engraving to the comely priest, who had made a deep impression on +their romantic hearts, the _enfants_ returned to their anxious friends, +mildewed, rumpled, and weary, but full of enthusiastic delight over +their successful ascent of St. Bernard. + +War broke out, and Alexandre, the all-accomplished head-waiter, dropped +his napkin, shouldered his gun, and marched away, leaving the Hotel des +Bains desolate. Being pretty thoroughly baked, and very weary of the +little town, our trio departed to Vevey, and settled down in the best +_pension_ that ever received the weary traveller. + +Standing in its own pretty grounds, and looking out upon the lake, +Pension Paradis deserves its name. Clean and cosy within, a good table, +a kindly hostess, and the jolliest old host ever seen! what more could +the human heart desire? + +Vevey was swarming with refugees. Don Carlos, or the Duke de Madrid, as +he was called, was there with his Duchess and court, plotting heaven +knows what up at his villa, with the grave, shabby men who haunted the +town. + +Queen Isabella reigned at one hotel, and Spanish grandees pervaded the +place. There were several at Pension Paradis, and no one guessed what +great creatures they were till a _fete_ day arrived, and the grim, gray +men blossomed out into counts, marquises, and generals covered with +orders, stars, and crosses splendid to behold. + +One particularly silent, shabby little man with a shaven head and fine +black eyes, who was never seen to smile, became an object of interest on +that occasion by appearing in a gorgeous uniform with a great gilt +grasshopper hanging down his back from a broad green ribbon. Who was he? +What did the grasshopper mean? Where did he go to in a fine carriage, +and what was he plotting with the other Carlists, who dodged in and out +of his room at all hours? + +No one ever knew, and all the artful questions put to the young +Spaniard, who played croquet with the girls, were unavailing. Nothing +was discovered, except that little Mirandola had a title, and might be +sent back to Spain any day to lose his life or liberty in some rash +plot, which circumstance made the black-eyed boy doubly interesting to +the free-born Americans. Lavinia bewailed his hard lot, Amanda taught +him whist and told his fortune, and Matilda put him in her sketch-book +done in the blackest India-ink. It is also to be recorded that the +doomed little Don was never seen to laugh but once, and that was when +the girls taught him the classical game of Muggins. The name struck him; +he went about saying it to himself, and on the first occasion of his +being 'mugginsed,' he was so tickled that he indulged in a hearty boy's +laugh; but immediately recovered himself, and never smiled again, as if +in penance for so forgetting his dignity. + +A bashful Russian, who wore remarkably fine broadcloth and had perfect +manners, was likewise received into the good graces of the ladies, who +taught him English, called him 'the Baron' in private, and covered him +with confusion in public by making him talk at table. + +But the most amusing of all the family was Madame A., a handsome widow +from Lyons, with two ugly children and a stout old mamma, who wore +orange stockings and a curious edifice of black lace encircled with +large purple asters. The widow had married an Italian artist, who was +mortally jealous of his wife, whose blonde beauty attracted much +attention at Rome. In some quarrel with a model the husband was stabbed, +and the handsome widow left in peace. + +A tall, fair lady, with a profile like Marie Antoinette; she dressed in +white with violet ribbons, and wore much ancient jewelry. A loud-voiced, +energetic woman, who bewailed the sack of her house at Lyons, scolded +her children, and cursed the Germans with equal volubility and spirit. +When silent she was the picture of a patrician beauty; but, alas! her +voice destroyed the charm, and her manners--great heavens, what things +that woman did! Picking her pearly teeth with a hair-pin, and knocking +her darlings into their chairs with one sweep of her elbow when they +annoyed her at table, were the least of the horrors she perpetrated. + +But she talked well, devoted herself to her family, and took misfortune +bravely; so much may be pardoned her. + +Her infants were only remarkable for their ugliness and curious +costumes. The little girl usually wore soiled silk gowns, and had her +hair tied up with bits of twine. The boy appeared in a suit of yellow +calico spotted with black, looking very much like a canary bird who had +fallen into an inkstand. On festival occasions he wore white cloth +raiment, with red ribbons stuck here and there, and high red boots. + +But, on the whole, the old mamma was the queerest of the set; for she +spent most of her time lumbering up and down stairs, which amusement +kept the orange hose constantly before the public. When not disporting +herself in this way, she dozed in the _salon_, or consumed much food at +table with a devotion that caused her to suck her fingers, on every one +of which shone an antique ring of price. Her head-gear was a perpetual +puzzle to the observing Lavinia, who could never discover whether it was +a cap, a bonnet, or a natural production, for it was never off. Madame +walked out in it, wore it all day, and very likely slept in it. At least +Lavinia firmly believed so, and often beguiled the watches of the night, +imagining the old soul placidly slumbering with the perennial asters +encircling her aged brow like a halo. + +One other party there was who much amused the rest of the household. An +American lady with a sickly daughter, who would have been pretty but for +her affectation and sentimentality. The girl was engaged to a fierce, +dissipated little Russian, who presented her with a big bouquet every +morning, followed her about all day like a dog, and glared wrathfully at +any man who cast an eye upon the languishing damsel in white muslin and +flowing curls 'bedropt with pearls,' as a romantic lady expressed it. + +It was evident that the Russian without any vowels in his name was going +to marry Mademoiselle for her money, and the weak Mamma was full of +satisfaction at the prospect. To others it seemed a doubtful bargain, +and much pity was felt for the feeble girl doomed to go to Russia with a +husband who had 'tyrant' written in every line of his bad, _blase_ +little face and figure. French polish could not hide the brute, nor any +quantity of flowers conceal the chain by which he was leading his new +serf away to bondage in St. Petersburg. + +Into the midst of this select society came a countryman of our +three,--a jocund youth fresh from Algiers, with relics, adventures, and +tales that utterly eclipsed the 'Arabian Nights.' Festive times +followed, for the 'Peri' (the pet name of aforesaid youth) gave them the +fruits of his long wanderings, sung whole operas heard in Paris, danced +ballets seen in Berlin, recounted perils among the Moors, served up +gossip from the four corners of the globe, and conversed with each +member of the household in his or her own language. + +A cheerful comrade was the 'Peri,' and a great addition to the party, +who now spent most of their time sitting about the town, eating grapes, +and listening to the pranks of this sprightly M.D., who seemed to be +studying his profession by wandering over Europe with a guitar _a la +troubadour_. + +Sounding the lungs of a veiled princess in Morocco was the least of his +adventures, and the treasures he had collected supplied Lavinia with +materials for unlimited romances: cuff-buttons made from bits of marble +picked up among the ruins of Carthage; diamond crescents and ear-rings +bought in Toledo, so antique and splendid that relic-loving Amanda raved +about them; photographs of the _belles_ of Constantinople, Moorish coins +and pipes, bits of curious Indian embroidery; and, best of all, the +power of telling how each thing was found in so graphic a manner that +Eastern bazaars, ruins, and palaces seemed to rise before the listeners +as in the time of the magic story-tellers. But all too soon he packed +his knapsack, and promising to bring each of his friends the nose or ear +of one of the shattered saints from the great cathedral at Strasbourg, +the 'Peri' vanished from Paradis, and left them all lamenting. + +The little flurry in Italy ending peacefully, our travellers after much +discussion resolved to cross the Alps and spend the winter in Rome, if +possible. So with tragic farewells from those they left behind them, +who, hoping to keep them longer, predicted all manner of misfortunes, +the three strong-minded ladies rumbled away in the _coupe_ of a +diligence to Brieg. + +A lovely day's journey up the valley of the Rhone, and a short night's +rest in the queer little town at the foot of the mountains. + +Before light the next morning they were called, and, after a hurried +breakfast in a stony hall, went shivering out into the darkness, and, +stumbling through the narrow street, came to the starting-point. +Lanterns were dancing about the square, two great diligences loomed up +before them, horses were tramping, men shouting, and eager travellers +scrambling for places. In the dimly lighted office, people were +clamouring for tickets, scolding at the delay, or grimly biding their +time in corners, with one eye asleep, and the other sharply watching the +conductor. + +'Isn't it romantic?' cried Matilda, wide awake, and in a twitter of +excitement. + +'It is frightfully cold; and I don't see how we are going, for both +those caravans are brimful,' croaked Lavinia, chafing her purple nose, +and wishing it had occurred to her to buy a muff before going to sunny +Italy. + +'I have got through tickets, and some one is bound to see us over these +snow-banks, so "trust in Providence and the other man," and we shall +come out right, I assure you,' replied the energetic Amanda, who had +conferred with a spectral being in the darkness, and blindly put her +faith in him. + +Away lumbered one diligence after the other, the first drawn by seven +horses, the second by five, while the carrier's little cart with one +brought up the rear. But still three muffled ladies sat upon a cool +stone in the dark square, waiting for the spectre to keep his promise. + +He did like a man; for suddenly the doors of an old stable flew open, +and out rattled a comfortable carriage with a pair of stout little +horses jingling their bells, and a brisk driver, whose voice was +pleasant, as he touched his hat and invited the ladies to enter, +assuring them that they would soon overtake and pass the heavy +diligences before them. + +'Never again will I doubt you, my Amanda,' cried the Raven, packing +herself into the dowager's corner with a grateful heart. + +'I hope the top of this carriage opens, for I _must_ see _everything_,' +cried Matilda, prancing about on the front seat in a chaos of wraps, +books, bottles, and lunch-baskets. + +'Of course it does, and when there is anything to see we will see it. It +is dark and cold now, so we'd better all go to sleep again.' + +With which sage remark, Amanda burrowed into her cloaks and slumbered. +But not the other two. Matilda stuck her head out of one window, +uttering little cries of wonder and delight at all she saw; while Livy +watched the solemn stars pale one by one as the sky brightened, and felt +as if she were climbing up, out of a dark valley of weariness and pain, +into a new world full of grand repose. + +Slowly winding higher and higher through the damp pine forest, softly +stirring in the morning wind, they saw the sky warm from its cold gray +to a rosy glow, making ready for the sun to rise as they never saw it +rise before. + + + 'Full many a glorious morning have I seen, + Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,' + + +but never more wonderfully than on that day. Long after the distant +peaks flamed in the ruddy light, they rode in shadow; but turning +suddenly round a corner, the sun came dazzling through a great gorge, +startling them with the splendour it brought. + +Down went the carriage-top, and standing bolt upright, three pairs of +eager eyes drank in the grandeur and the beauty that makes the crossing +of the Simplon an experience to live for ever in the memory. Peak after +peak of the Bernese Oberland rose behind them, silver white against a +wonderful blue sky. Before them Monte Rosa, touched with the morning +red, and all around great glaciers glittering in the sunshine, awful +gorges with torrents thundering from the heights above, relics of +land-slides and avalanches still visible in uprooted trees, boulders +tumbled here and there, and ruins of shepherds' huts in solitary nooks +where sheep now feed. + +The road crept in and out, over frail bridges, spanning chasms that made +one dizzy to look into, through tunnels of solid rock, or galleries with +windows over which poured waterfalls from the treacherous glaciers +above. This road is a miracle in itself, for all nature seems to protest +against it, and the elements never tire of trying to destroy it. Only a +Napoleon would have had the audacity to dream of such a path, and it is +truly a royal road into a lovely land. + +Passing the diligences the little carriage went rapidly on, and soon +the three were almost alone. Out leaped Lavinia and Matilda, and walked +along the level way that curved round a great gorge. + +'Go on and let me be. It is all so magnificent it almost takes my breath +away. I must just sit a minute, like a passive bucket, and let it pour +into me,' said Lavinia, in a solemn tone. + +Mat understood; for her own heart and soul were full, and with a silent +kiss of sympathy, walked on, leaving her sister to enjoy that early mass +in a grander cathedral than any built with hands. + +In spite of the sunshine it was very cold, and when the three met again +their noses looked like the eldest Miss Pecksniff's, 'as if Aurora had +nipped and tweaked it with her rosy fingers.' Subsiding into their +places with pale, excited faces, they went silently on for a long time, +with no sound but the chime of the bells on the horses who were covered +with a light hoar-frost. Wrapped up to their eyes, like Egyptian women, +sat Livy and Amanda; while Matilda, having tried to sketch Monte Rosa, +and given it up, made a capital caricature of them as they ate cold +chicken, and drank wine, in a primitive manner, out of the bottle. + +It was a sudden descent from the sublime to the ridiculous; but the +feeble human mind cannot bear too much glory at once, and is saved by +the claims of the prosaic body, that will get tired and hungry even atop +of the everlasting hills. So the enthusiasts picked their chicken bones, +sipped their wine, and felt less exhausted and hysterical. A good laugh +over the carrier's little boy, who sniffed the banquet afar off, and +came running to offer a handful of pale Alpine flowers, with wistful +glances at the lunch, did them more good still: for the little chap +caught and bolted the morsels they gave him with such dexterous +rapidity, it was as good as juggling. + +Refuges and the Hospice came in sight one after the other, and while +waiting to change horses one had time to wonder how the people living +there managed to be such a stolid, dirty, thriftless-looking set. +Mountaineers should be intelligent, active, and hardy; but these men +were a most ungainly crew, and Lavinia's theories got a sad blow. + +A bad dinner at Simplon would have been an affliction at any other time; +but with the Valley of Gondo for dessert, no one cared for other food. +Following the wild stream that had worn its way between the immense +cliffs, they drove rapidly down towards Italy, feeling that this was a +fit gateway to the promised land. + +At Iselle, on the frontier, they enacted a little farce for the benefit +of the custom-house officers. Lavinia and Amanda had old passports, and +had been told they would be needed. Mat had none, so she was ordered to +try the _role_ of maid. Before they arrived, she took out her ear-rings, +tied up her curls under a dingy veil, put on a waterproof, and tried to +assume the demure air of an Abigail. + +When they alighted, she was left to guard the wraps in the carriage +while the others went with the luggage, expecting to have much trouble; +for all manner of hindrances had been predicted owing to the unsettled +state of the country. Nothing could be simpler, however; no passports +were demanded, a very careless search of luggage, and it was all over. +So Matilda threw off her disguise, and ascended the diligence in her +own character, for here, alas! they left the cozy little carriage with +the affable driver and the jingling bells. + +Only two places could be found in the crowded diligences, and great was +the fuss till Amanda was invited up aloft by a friendly gentleman who +had a perch behind, large enough for two. There they discussed theology +and politics to their hearts' content, and at parting the worthy man cut +his book in two, and gave Amanda half that she might refresh herself +with a portion of some delightfully dry work on Druidical Remains, +Protoplasm, or the state of the church before the flood. + +The force of contrast makes the charm of this entry into Italy; for, +after the grandeur of the Alps and the gloomy wildness of Gondo, the +smiling scene is doubly lovely as one drives down to Domo d'Ossola. +Weariness, hunger, and sleep were quite forgotten; and when our +travellers came to Lago Maggiore, glimmering in the moonlight, they +could only sigh for happiness, and look and look and look. + +'Victory has perched upon our banners so far, I am sure, for never was a +trip more delightful. It is not every stranger who is fortunate enough +to see sunrise, noonday, sunset, and moonlight in crossing the Alps,' +said Matilda, as she fell into her bed quite exhausted by the excitement +of the day. + +'I feel a richer, better woman for it, and don't believe I shall ever +see anything more satisfactory if I stay in Italy ten years,' responded +Lavinia, wrapping the red army-blanket + + + 'Like a martial cloak around her.' + + +'Wait till the spell of Rome is upon you, and then see what you will +feel, my Granny' predicted Amanda, who _had_ felt the spell, and had not +yet escaped from it. + +'Don't believe it will suit me half so well,' persisted Livy, who would +prefer nature to art, much to Amanda's disgust. + +'We shall see,' observed Amanda, with the exasperating mildness of +superior knowledge. + +'We shall!' and Livy tied her cap in a hard knot as if to settle the +matter. + + + + +V. + +_ITALY._ + + +Sleep as deep, dreamless, and refreshing as if the beneficent spirit of +Carlo Borromeo still haunted the enchanted lake, prepared the three for +a day of calm delights. The morning was spent floating over the lake in +a luxuriously cushioned boat with a gay awning and a picturesque rower, +to visit Isola Bella. Everyone knows what a little Paradise has been +made to blossom on that rock; so raptures over the flowers, the marbles, +the panniers of lovely fruit, and the dirty, pretty children who offered +them, are unnecessary. + +In the afternoon, having despatched the luggage to Florence, our +travellers sailed away to Luini, catching last glimpses of Monte Rosa, +and enjoying the glories of an Italian sunset on an Italian lake. At +Luini the girls caused much excitement by insisting on sitting up with +the driver instead of sharing the _coupe_ with their decorous duenna. +'We _must_ see the lovely views and the moonlight,' said Amanda, and up +she went. + +'To sit aloft with a brigandish driver dressed in a scarlet and black +uniform, with a curly horn slung over his shoulder, and to go tearing up +hill and down with four frisky horses, is irresistible,' and up skipped +Matilda. + +'You will both catch your death of cold, if you don't break your necks, +so it will be well to have some one to nurse or bury you,' and Lavinia, +finding commands and entreaties vain, entered the _coupe_ with mournful +dignity. + +With a toot of the horn, and cheers from the crowd, which the girls +gracefully acknowledged, away rumbled the diligence, with at least two +very happy occupants. How lovely it was! First, the soft twilight +wrapping everything in mysterious shadow, and then the slow uprising of +a glorious full moon, touching the commonest object with its magical +light. Cries of rapture from the girls atop were answered by +exclamations from Livy, hanging half out of the _coupe_ regardless of +night air, or raps on the head from overhanging boughs, as they went +climbing up woody hills, or dashing down steep roads that wound so +sharply round corners, it was a wonder the airy passengers did not fly +off at every lurch. Rattling into quiet little towns with a grand +'tootle-te-too' of the horn was an especial delight, and to see the +people gather so quickly that they seemed to spring from the ground. A +moment's chatter, a drink for the horses, a soft 'Felice notte,' +another toot, and away thundered the diligence for miles more of +moonlight, summer air, and the ecstasy of rapid motion. + +What that dear, brown driver with the red vest, the bobtailed, buttony +coat, and the big yellow tassels dancing from his hat brim, thought of +those two American damsels we shall never know. But it may be imagined +that, after his first bewilderment, he enjoyed himself; for Amanda aired +her Italian and asked many questions. Matilda invited him to perform +national airs on all occasions, and both admired him as openly as if he +had been a pretty child. + +Lavinia always cherished a dark suspicion that she narrowly escaped +destruction on that eventful night; for, judging from the frequent +melody, and the speed of the horses, she was sure that either Amanda +tooted and Matilda drove, or that both so bewildered the brigand that +he lost his head. However, it was all so delightful that even Granny +felt the charm, and was sure that if they did upset in some romantic +spot, a Doctor Antonio would spring up as quickly as a mushroom, and +mend their bones, marry one of her giddy charges, and end the affair in +the most appropriate manner. + +Nothing happened, fortunately, and by nine o'clock they were safely at +Lugano, and, tearing themselves from the dear brigand, were taken +possession of by a shadowy being, who fed them in a marble hall with +statues ten feet high glaring at them as they ate, then led them to a +bower which had pale green doors, a red carpet, blue walls, and yellow +bed covers,--all so gay it was like sleeping in a rainbow. + +As if another lovely lake under the windows, and moonlight _ad libitum_, +was not enough, they had music also. Lavinia scorned the idea of sleep, +and went prowling about the rooms, hanging over the balconies, and doing +the romantic in a style that was a disgrace to her years. She it was who +made the superb discovery that the music they heard came from across the +way, and that by opening a closet window they could look into a theatre +and see the stage. + +All rushed at once and beheld an opera in full blast, heartily enjoying +the unusual advantages of their position; for not only could they hear +the warblers, but see them when the curtain was down. What a thing it +was to see Donna Anna do up her black hair, Don Giovanni dance a jig, +and stately Ottavio imbibe refreshment out of a black bottle, and the +ghostly Commander prance like a Punchinello as they got him into +position. + +The others soon succumbed to sleep; but, till long after midnight, old +Livy wandered like a ghost from the front balcony, with the lovely lake, +to the closet window and its dramatic joys, feeling that no moment of +that memorable night should be lost, for what other traveller could +boast that she ever went to the opera wrapped in a yellow bedquilt? + +On the morrow a few pictures of Luini before breakfast, and then more +sailing over lakes, and more driving in festive diligences to Menaggio, +where a boat like a market waggon without wheels bore them genteelly to +Cadenabbia, and a week of repose on the banks of Lago Como. + +Their palace did not 'lift its marble walls to eternal summer' by any +means; for it rained much, and was so cold that some took to their beds +for warmth, stone floors looking like castile-soap not being just the +thing for rheumatism. Hand-organs, dancing-bears, two hotels, one +villa, no road but the lake, and an insinuating boatman with one eye who +lay in wait among the willows, and popped out to grab a passenger when +anyone ventured forth, are all that remains in the memory regarding +Cadenabbia. + +A few extracts from Lavinia's note-book may be found useful at this +point, both as a speedy way of getting our travellers to Rome, and for +the bold criticisms on famous places and pictures which they contain:-- + +'Milan.--Cathedral like a big wedding-cake. "Last Supper" in the +barracks--did not "thrill;" tried to, but couldn't, as the picture is so +dim it can hardly be seen. Ambrosian Library.--Lock of L. Borgia's hair; +tea-coloured and coarse. Don't believe in it a bit. Jolly old books, but +couldn't touch 'em. Fine window to Dante. Saw cathedral illuminated; +very theatrical, and much howling of people over the deputies from Rome. +Don't know why they illuminated or why they howled; didn't ask. Men here +handsome, but rude. Women wear veils and no bonnets,--fat and ugly. +Gloves very good.--Arch of Peace.--More peace and less arch would be +better for Italy. + +'Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin.--Stiff and stupid. Can't like +Raphael. Dear, pious, simple, old Fra Angelico suits me better. + +'To the Public Garden with A.; saw a black ostrich with long pink legs, +who pranced and looked so like an opera dancer that we sat on the fence +and shrieked with laughter. + +'Pavia.--To the Certosa to see the old Carthusian Convent founded in +1396; cloisters, gardens, and twenty-four little dwellings, with chapel, +bedroom, parlour, and yard for each monk, who is never to speak, and +comes out but once a week. A nice way for lazy men to spend their lives +when there is so much work to be done for the Lord and his poor! Wanted +to shake them all round, though they did look well in their gowns and +cowls gliding about the dim cloisters and church. Perhaps they are kept +for that purpose. + +'Parma.--Dome of church frescoed by Correggio. All heaven upsidedown; +fat angels turning somersaults, saints like butchers, and martyrs +simpering feebly. Like C.'s babies much better. Heaven can't be painted, +and they'd better not try. Madonna, by Girolamo, was lovely. Room of the +Abbess, with rosy children peeping through the lattice, very charming. +Madonna della Scodella--the boy Christ very charming. The old Farnese +Theatre most interesting; got a scrap of canvas from a mouldy scene. +Dead old place is Parma. + +'Bologna.--Drove in a pelting rain to the Academy, and saw many +pictures. A Pieta, by Guido, was very striking. The desolate mother, +with her dead son on her knees, haunted me long afterwards. St. Jerome +and the infant Christ, by Elizabeth Sirani, I liked. Raphael won't suit +yet. Sad for me, but I cannot admire Madonnas with faces like +fashion-plates, or dropsical babies with no baby sweetness about them. + +'Florence.--Bought furs. Nice climate to bring invalids into. Always did +think Italy a humbug, and I begin to see I was right. Acres of pictures. +Like about six out of the lot. Can't bear the Venus, or Titian's famous +hussy hanging over it. Like his portraits much. Busts of Roman emperors +great fun. Such bad heads! The Julias, Faustinas, and Agrippinas, with +hair dressed like a big sponge on the brow, were so comical I was never +tired of looking at them. I see now where the present bedlamite style of +coiffure comes from. + +'The philosophers, &c., were very interesting. Cicero so like Wendell +Phillips that I could hardly help clapping my hands and saying, "Hear! +hear!" + +'Gave A. a sad blow by saying the Campanile looked like an inlaid +work-box. Did not admire it half so much as I did a magnificent stone +pine. Best of all, saw in the old Monastery of St. Marco many works of +Fra Angelico. I love his pictures, for he put his pious heart into them, +and one sees and feels it, and I don't care if his saints do have six +joints to their fingers and impossible noses. A very dear picture of +"Providenza,"--poor monks at an empty table and angels bringing bread. + +'Angelico's picture of heaven was more to my mind than any I have seen. +No stern, avenging God, no silly Madonna, but happy souls playing like +children, or singing and piping with devout energy. + +'Relics of Savonarola,--his cell, bust, beads, hair-cloth shirt, and a +bit of wood from the pile on which they burnt him. I like relics of one +man who really lived, worked, and suffered, better than armies of +angels, or acres of gods and goddesses. + +'Pleasant drives. Saw artists, Casa Guidi windows, and a model baby +house with dolly's name on the door, and steps modelled by hands that +have made famous statues. "Papa's baby house" was best of all his works +to me. A nice little earthquake and a trifle of snow to enhance the +charms of this sweet spot. + +'Visited Parker's grave, and was afflicted to find it in such an +unlovely, crowded cemetery. It does not matter after all: his best +monument is in the hearts that love him and the souls he fed. As I stood +there a little brown bird hopped among the vines that covered the grave, +pecked its breakfast from a dry seed-pod, perched on the head-stone with +a grateful twitter, as grace after meat, and flew away, leaving me +comforted by the little sermon it had preached.' + + +'I don't wish to hurt your feelings, dear, but if this is Rome I must +say it is a very nasty place,' began Lavinia, as they went stumbling +through the mud and confusion of a big, unfinished station on their +arrival at the eternal city. + +'People of sense don't judge a place at ten o'clock of a pitch-dark, +rainy night, especially if they are hungry, tired, and, excuse me, love, +rather cross,' returned Amanda, severely, as they piled into a carriage +and drove to Piazzi di Spagna. + +'I see a divine fountain! A splendid palace! Now it's a statue of some +sort! I do believe that dark figure was a monk! I know I shall like it +in spite of everything,' cried Matilda excitedly, flattening her nose +against the window. + +She had been much disappointed at not being able to enter Rome by +daylight, so that she might clasp her hands and cry aloud, half-stifled +with the overpowering emotions of the moment, 'Roma! Roma! the eternal +city, bursts upon my view!' That was the proper thing to do, and it was +a blow to make so commonplace and ignoble an entry into the city of her +dreams. + +Early next morning, Livy was roused from slumber by cries of delight, +and, starting up, beheld her artist sister wrapped in a dressing-gown, +with dishevelled hair, staring out of the window, and murmuring +incoherently,-- + +'Spanish Steps, that's where the models sit. Propaganda, famous Jesuit +school. Hope I shall see the little students in their funny hats and +gowns. That's the great monument thing put up to settle the Immaculate +Conception fuss. Very fine, but the apostles look desperately tired of +holding it up. Dear old houses! Heavens! there's a _trattoria_ man with +somebody's breakfast on his head! Don't see any costumes. Where are the +sheepskin suits? the red skirts and white head-cloths? Girl with +flowers. Oh, how lovely! Mercy on us, there's an officer staring up +here, and I never saw him!' + +In came the blond head, and the blue dressing-gown vanished from the +eyes of the handsome soldier who had been attitudinizing with his high +boots, gray and scarlet cloak, jingling sword, and becoming _barrette_ +cap, for the especial benefit of the enraptured stranger. + +'Livy, it is just superb! Get up and come out at once. It is clouding +up, and I must have one look or lose my mind,' said Matilda, flying +about with unusual energy. + +'You will have to get used to rain if you stay here long, my child,' +returned the Raven. + +And she was right. It poured steadily for two months, with occasional +flurries of snow, also thunder, likewise hurricanes, the tramontana, the +sirocco, and all the other charming features of an Italian winter. That +nothing might be wanting, a nice little inundation was got up for their +benefit, December 28th. + +Sitting peacefully at breakfast on the morning of that day, in their +cosey apartment, with a fire of cones and olive-wood cheerily burning on +the hearth, Jokerella, the big cat, purring on the rug, the little +coffee-pot proudly perched among bread and butter, eggs and fruit, while +the ladies, in dressing-gowns and slippers, lounged luxuriously in +arm-chairs, one red, one blue, one yellow; they (the ladies, not the +chairs) were started by Agrippina, the maid, who burst into the room +like a bomb-shell, announcing, all in one breath, that the Tiber had +risen, inundated the whole city, and instant death was to be the doom of +all. + +Rushing to the window to see if the flood had quite covered the steps, +and cut off all retreat, the friends were comforted to observe no signs +of water, except that half-frozen in the basin of the fountain above +which leaned their favourite old Triton, with an icicle on the end of +his nose. + +'I must go and attend to this. The poor will suffer; we may be able to +help,' said Livy, forgetting her bones, and beginning to scramble on her +fur boots as if the safety of the city depended on her. + +The others followed suit, and leaving Jokerella to ravage the table, +they hurried forth to see what Father Tiber was up to. A most +reprehensible prank, apparently, for the lower parts of the city were +under water, and many of the great streets already as full of boats as +Venice. + +The Corso was a deep and rapid stream, and the shopkeepers were +disconsolately paddling about, trying to rescue their property. + +'Our dresses, our beautiful new dresses, where are they now!' wailed +the girls, surveying Mazzoni's grand store, with water up to the +balcony, where many milliners wrung their hands, lamenting. + +The Piazza del Popolo was a lake, with the four stone lions just +visible, and still spouting water, though it was a drug in the market. +In at the open gate rolled a muddy stream, bearing hay-stacks, +brushwood, and drowned animals along the Corso. People stood on their +balconies wondering what they should do, many breakfastless; for how +could the _trattoria_ boys safely waft their coffee-pots across such +canals of water? Carriages splashed about in shallower parts with +agitated loads, hurrying to drier quarters; many were coming down +ladders into boats, and crowds stood waiting their turn with bundles of +valuables in their hands. + +The soldiers were out in full force, working gallantly to save life and +property; making rafts, carrying people on their backs, and going +through the inundated streets with boat-loads of food for the hungry, +shut up in their ill-provided houses. Usually at such times the priests +did this work; but now they stood idly looking on, and saying it was a +judgment on the people for their treatment of the Pope. The people were +troubled because the priests refused to pray for them: but otherwise +they snapped their fingers at the sullen old gentlemen in the Vatican; +and the brisk, brave troops worked for the city quite as well (the +heretics thought better) than the snuffy priests. + +In the Ghetto the disaster was truly terrible, for the flood came so +suddenly that the whole quarter was under water in an hour. The scene +was pitiful; for here the Jews live packed like sardines in a box, and +being washed out with no warning, were utterly destitute. In one street +a man and woman were seen wading up to their waists in water, pushing an +old mattress before them, on which were three little children, all they +had saved. + +Later in the day, as boats of provisions came along, women and children +swarmed at the windows, crying, 'Bread! bread!' and their wants could +not be supplied in spite of the care of the city authorities. One old +woman who had lost everything besought the rescuers to bring her a +little snuff for the love of heaven; which was very characteristic of +the race. One poor man, in trying to save a sick wife and his little +ones in a cart, upset them, and the babies were drowned at their own +door. Comedy and tragedy side by side. + +Outside the city, houses were carried off, people lost, and bridges +swept away, so sudden and violent was the flood. The heavy rains and +warm winds melted the snow on the mountains, and swelled the river till +it rose higher than at any time since 1805. + +Many strangers, who came to Rome for the Christmas holidays, sat in +their fine apartments without food, fire, light, or company, till taken +off in boats or supplied by hoisting stores in at the windows. + +'We can hold out some time, as we live on a hill, and Pina has laid in +provisions for several days. But if the flood lasts, we shall come to +want; for the wood-yards are under water, the railroads down, and the +peasants can't get into the city to bring supplies, unless the donkeys +swim,' said Amanda, reviewing the situation. + +'Never mind; it's so exciting; only we must not forget that we engaged +to go and see the Roastpig Aurora to-day,' answered Matilda, who +insisted on pronouncing Rospigliosi in that improper manner. + +'I like this infinitely better than any of your picturesque +refrigerators, and it thrills me more to watch one of those dear, dirty +soldiers save women and babies than to see a dozen "Dying Gladiators" +gasping for centuries in immortal marble,' added Lavinia, who had +shocked her artistic friends by sniffing at the famous statue, and +wishing the man would die and done with it, and not lie squirming there. + +'Come away, Mat: she has no soul for art, and it is all in vain to try +and breathe one into her,' said Amanda, with the calm pity of one who +had read up every great picture, studied up every famous statue, and +knew what to admire, when to thrill, and just where the various emotions +should come in. + +So they left the outcast perched on a wall, waving her muff at them, +and calling out, 'Nater for ever!' to the great horror of an English +lady, who would have seen all Rome upset without any unseemly +excitement. + +That night the gas gave out, and mysterious orders were left at houses +for lamps to be kept burning till morning. Thieves abounded, and the +ladies prepared their arms--one pistol, one dagger, and a large +umbrella--then slept peacefully, undisturbed by the commotion in the +kitchen, where cats, live chickens, and Pina's five grandmothers, all +lived together, rent free. + +Amanda's last prediction was, that they would find themselves gently +floating out at the Porta Pia about midnight. Mat wailed for a submerged +gallery in which she had hoped to ice herself on the morrow, and Livy +indulged the sinful hope that the Pope would get his pontifical +petticoats very wet, be a little drowned, and terribly scared by the +flood, because he spoilt the Christmas festivities, and shut up all the +cardinals' red coaches. + +Next day the water began to abate, and people made up their minds that +the end of the world was not yet. Gentlemen paid visits on the backs of +stout soldiers, ladies went shopping in boats, and family dinners were +handed in at two-story windows without causing any remark, so quickly do +people adapt themselves to the inevitable. + +Hardly had the watery excitement subsided when a new event set the city +in an uproar. + +The King was not expected till the tenth of January; but the kind soul +could not wait, and, as soon as the road was passable, he came with +300,000 francs in his hands to see what he could do for his poor Romans. +He arrived at 4 A.M., and though unexpected, the news flew through the +city, and a crowd turned out with torches to escort him to the Quirinal. + +Again did the explosive Pina burst in upon her mistresses with the news, +this time in tears of joy, for the people began to think the King would +never come, and therefore were especially touched by this prompt visit +in the midst of their trouble. The handsome damsel was a spectacle +herself, so dramatic was she as she shook her fist at the Pope, and +cheered for the King, with a ladle in one hand, an artichoke in the +other, her fine eyes flashing, and her mellow voice trembling, while she +talked regardless of the _polenta_ going to destruction in the +frying-pan. + +On went the bonnets, out flew the ladies, and rushed up to the Quirinal, +where stood a great crowd waiting eagerly for a sight of the King. + +There was a great bustle among the officials, and splendid creatures, +in new uniforms, ran about in all directions. Grand carriages arrived, +bringing the high and mighty, gaping but loyal, to greet their lord. +General Marmora--a thin, shabby, energetic man--was everywhere; for the +new order of things seemed a little hitchy. Dorias and Colonnas +gladdened plebeian eyes, and the people cheered every thing, from the +Commander-in-Chief to somebody's breakfast, borne through the crowd by a +stately 'Jeames' in livery, who graciously acknowledged the homage. + +For one mortal hour our ladies stood in a pelting rain, and then +retired, feeling that the sacrifice of their best hats was all that +could reasonably be expected of free-born Americans. They consoled +themselves by putting out Pina's fine Italian banner (made in secret, +and kept ready for her King, for the _padrona_ was _papalino_), and +supporting it by two little American flags, the stars and stripes of +which much perplexed the boys and donkeys disporting themselves in the +Piazza Barberini. + +But the excitement was so infectious that the girls could not resist +another run after royalty; so, while Livy consoled herself with the fire +and the cat, they took a carriage and chased the King till they caught +him at the Capitol. They had a fine view of him as he came down the long +steps, almost alone, and at the peril of his life, through a mass of +people cheering frantically, and whitening the streets with waving +handkerchiefs. + +The enthusiastic damsels mounted up beside the driver, and hurrahed with +all their hearts and voices, as well they might, for it certainly was a +sight to see. The courage of the King, in trusting himself in a city +full of enemies, touched the people quite as much as the kindly motive +that brought him there, and kept him sacred in their eyes. + +The girls had a second view of him on the balcony of the Quirinal; for +the populace clamoured so for another sight of 'Il Re,' that the Pope's +best velvet hangings were hastily spread, and Victor Emmanuel came out +and bowed to his people, 'who stood on their heads with joy,' as Amanda +expressed it. + +He was in citizen's dress, and looked like a stout, brown, soldierly +man, not so ugly as the pictures of him, but not an Apollo by any means. + +Hating ceremony and splendour, he would not have the fine apartments +prepared for him, but chose a plain room, saying, 'Keep the finery for +my son, if you like; I prefer this.' + +He drove through the Ghetto, and all the desolated parts of the city, +to see with his own eyes the ruin made; and then desired the city +fathers to give to the poor the money they had set apart to make a +splendid welcome for him. + +He only spent one day, and returned to Florence at night. All Rome was +at the station to see him off: ladies with carriages full of flowers, +troops of soldiers, and throngs of poor people blessing him like a +saint; for this kingly sympathy of his had won all hearts. + +'When he does make his grand entry, we will decorate our balcony, and +have our six windows packed with loyal Yankees who will hurrah their +best for "the honest man," as they call Victor Emmanuel--and that is +high praise for a king.' + +So said the three, and while waiting for the event (which did not occur +in their day, however,) they indulged in all the pastimes modern Rome +afforded. They shivered through endless galleries, getting 'cricks' in +their necks staring at frescoes, and injuring their optic nerves poring +over pictures so old that often nothing was visible but a +mahogany-coloured leg, an oily face, or the dim outline of a green saint +in a whirlwind of pink angels. + +They grubbed in catacombs and came up mouldy. They picnicked in the tomb +of Caecelia Metella, flirted in the palace of the Caesars--not in the +classical manner, however,--got cold by moonlight in the Colosseum, and +went sketching in the Baths of Caracalla, which last amusement generally +ended in the gentlemen and ladies drawing each other, and returning +delighted with the study of art in 'dear Rome.' + +They went to fancy parties, where artists got themselves up like their +own statues and pictures, and set mediaeval fashions which it was a pity +the rest of the world did not follow. They drank much social tea with +titled beings, as thick as blackberries, and, better still, men and +women who had earned noble names for themselves with pencil, pen, or +chisel. They paid visits in palaces where the horses lived in the +basement, rich foreigners on the first floor, artists next, and princes +in the attic. + +They went to the hunt, and saw scarlet coats, fine horses, bad riding, +many hounds, and no foxes. + +As a change they got up game parties _a la_ Little Athens in their own +small _salon_, introduced the Potatoe Pantomime, had charades, and +enacted the immortal Jarley's waxworks on one of the Seven Hills. + +A true Yankee breakfast of fish-balls, johnny-cake, and dip-toast, was +given in their honour, and its delights much enhanced by its being +eaten in a lovely room with reeds and rushes on the pale-green walls, +shell-shaped chairs, and coral mirror-frames. What a thing it was to +consume those familiar viands in a famous palace, with Guido's Cenci +downstairs, a great sculptor next door, three lovely boys as waiters, +and 'Titian T.' to head the feast, and follow it up with dates from the +Nile, and Egyptian sketches that caused the company to vote a speedy +adjournment to the land 'of corkendills' and pyramids. + +These and many other joys they tasted, and when all else palled upon +them they drove on the Campagna and were happy. + +It is sad to be obliged to record that these quiet drives were the +especial delight of the unsocial Lavinia, whose ill-regulated mind soon +wearied of swell society, classical remains, and artistic revelry. +Ancient Rome would have suited her excellently, she thought; but modern +Rome was such a chaos of frivolity and fanaticism, poverty and +splendour, dirt and devilry, dead grandeur and living ignorance, that +she felt as if shut up in a magnificent tomb, the bad air of which was +poisoning both body and soul. + +Her only consolation was the new freedom, that seemed to blow over Rome +like a wholesome wind. Old residents lamented the loss of the priestly +pageants, _fetes_, and ceremonies; but this republican spinster +preferred to see Rome guarded by her own troops, and governed by her own +King, who ordered streets to be cleaned, fountains filled, schools +opened, and all good institutions made possible, rather than any amount +of Papal purple covering poverty, ignorance, and superstition. Better +than the sight of all the red coaches that ever rumbled was the +spectacle of many boys quitting the Jesuit college and demanding +admittance into the free schools; and sweeter than the music of all the +silver trumpets that ever blew were the voices of happy men and women +singing once forbidden songs of liberty in the streets of Rome. + +These sentiments, and others equally unfashionable, were only breathed +into the ear of sister Matilda when the two retired to the Campagna to +confide to one another the secrets of their souls--a process necessary +about once a week; for after visiting studios, going to parties, and +telling polite fibs about everything they saw, it was impossible to +exist without finding a vent of some sort. Once out among the aqueducts, +Matilda could freely own that she thought genius a rare article in the +studios, where she expected to learn so much; and Lavinia could make the +awful avowal that parties at which the order of performance was gossip, +tea, music--then music, tea, and gossip, all together--were not her idea +of intellectual society. Their criticisms on pictures and statues cannot +be recorded without covering their humble names with infamy; and why the +sky did not fall upon, or the stones rise up and smite these Vandals, is +a mystery to this day. + +They did enjoy much in their own improper manner, but poor Amanda's +sufferings can better be imagined than described. So when Lavinia, early +in March, proposed to flee to the mountains before they became quite +demoralized, and learned to steal and stab, as well as lie and lounge, +she readily assented, and they retired to Albano. + +'The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was nothing to this, and +never have I seen such unappreciative women as you two,' sighed Amanda, +as they rolled away from Numero Due Piazza Barberini, leaving Agrippina +sobbing at the top of the stairs and the _padrona_ bobbing little +curtsies at the bottom. + +'I am sure the Cenci will haunt me all my days, and so will many other +famous things,' said Matilda, while her eye roved fondly from a very +brown Capuchin monk to a squad of Bersaglieri trotting by with jaunty +cocks' feathers dancing in the wind, muskets gleaming, and trim boots +skipping through the mud with martial regularity. + +'When I get the contents of my head sorted out, I shall doubtless +rejoice that I have seen Rome; but just now all that I can clearly +recall are the three facts that the Pope had a fit, our dear man Romeo +got very tipsy one night, and that we went to see the Sistine Chapel +the day the eclipse made it as dark as a pocket. Yes,' continued +Lavinia, with an air of decision, 'I _am_ glad to have seen this +classical cesspool, and still more glad to have got out of it alive,' +she added, sniffing the air from the mountains, as if the odour of +sanctity which pervaded the holy city did not suit her. + +It blew great guns up at Albano, and the society consisted chiefly of +donkeys. But the ladies enjoyed themselves nevertheless, and felt better +and better every day; for early hours, much exercise, and no aesthetic +tea, soon set them up after the dissipation of the winter. + +Three pleasing events diversified their stay. The first happened the day +after they arrived. The girls went forth early to look about them, and +to see if they could find a little apartment where all could be more +comfortable than in the breezy rooms at the hotel. Following the grassy +road that winds down the valley below the viaduct, they came to a lovely +garden, and, finding the gate open, went in. A queer old villa was +perched on the hill above, and a manly form was observed to be leaning +from a balcony, as if enjoying the fine view from the height. + +'I fancied that house was empty, or we wouldn't have come in. Never +mind: we won't go back now; and if any one comes after us, we will +apologize and say we lost our way going to Ajaccio,' said Amanda, as +they went calmly forward among the posy-beds that lay blooming on the +hill-side. + +It was well they prepared themselves, for the manly form suddenly +disappeared from the balcony, and a moment afterwards came swiftly +towards them through the shrubs. + +A comely young gentleman, who greeted them with Italian grace, accepted +their apology smiling, and begged them to walk in his garden whenever +they liked. It was always open, he said, and the peasants often used +that path, admiring but never hurting a leaf. Hearing that they were in +search of an apartment, he instantly begged them to come up and look at +some rooms in the villa. His father was a refugee from France, and +desired to let a part of his house. Come and behold these delightful +rooms. + +So charming was the interest he took in the errant damsels that they +could not resist, and after rolling up their eyes at one another to +express their enjoyment of the adventure, they graciously followed the +handsome youth into the villa. + +With confiding hospitality he took them everywhere--into his mother's +room, the kitchen, and nursery. In the latter place they found two small +boys, who bore such a striking resemblance to Napoleon I. that the girls +spoke of it, and were enraptured at the reply they received. + +'Truly yes: we belong to the family. My mother is a Buonaparte, my +father Count ----' + +'Here's richness and romance!' 'What will Livy say?' whispered the girls +to one another, as their guide left them in the _salon_ and went to find +his father. + +'She will scold us for coming here,' said Amanda, remembering her own +lectures on the proprieties. + +'Yes; but she will forgive us the minute we say Napoleon, for that bad +little man is one of her heroes,' added Mat, pretending to be admiring +the view, while she privately examined a lady in a bower below--a stout, +dark lady, with all the family traits so strongly marked that there +could be no doubt of the young man's assertion. + +Presently he came back with an affable old gentleman, who evidently had +an eye to the main chance; for, in spite of his elegance and affability, +he asked a great price for his rooms, and felt that any untitled +stranger should be glad to pay well for the honour of living under the +roof of a Buonaparte. + +Amanda left the decision to her invisible duenna, and with a profusion +of compliments and thanks, they got away, being gallantly escorted to +the gate by the young count, who filled their hands with flowers, and +gazed pensively after them, as if he found the society of two bright +American girls very agreeable after that of his lofty parents, or the +peasantry of the town. + +Home they ran and bounced in upon Livy, blooming and breathless, to +pour out their tale, and suggest an immediate departure to the blissful +spot where counts and crocuses flourished with Italian luxuriance. + +But after the first excitement had subsided, Lavinia put a wet blanket +on the entire plan by declaring that she would never board with any +grasping old patrician, who would charge for every bow, and fall back on +his ancestors if he was found cheating. She would go and look at the +place, but not enter it, nor be beholden to the resident Apollo for so +much as a dandelion. + +So the mourning damsels led the griffin over the viaduct, through the +dirty little town, by the villa on its least attractive side. Up at the +window were the two little Napoleonic heads, with big, black eyes, +strong chins, and dark hair streaked across wide, olive-coloured +foreheads. A vision of papa was visible in the garden pruning a vine +with gloves on his aristocratic hands, and a shabby velvet coat on his +highly connected back. Also, afar off on the balcony--oh, sight to touch +a maiden's heart!--was the young count gazing wistfully towards Albano. +He did not see the charmers as they crept down the rough road close to +the garden wall, and went sadly home, along the blooming path, to the +'Tomb of the Four Thimbles,' as Livy irreverently called the ruin which +has an ornament at each of its corners like a gigantic thimble of stone. + +A note in Amanda's most elegant French, declining the apartments in the +name of Madame Duenna, closed the door of this Eden upon the wandering +peris, who entered never more. Now and then, as they went clattering by +on their donkeys to Lake Nemi, or some other picturesque spot, + + + They saw again the crocus bloom, + And, leaning from that lofty room, + Sir Launcelot with face of gloom + Look down to Camelot. + Up flew their veils and floated wide, + But Livy pinned them to her side, + 'The curse has come upon us!' cried + The ladies of Shalott. + + +The second adventure befell Amanda alone, and in this wise. + +Going one day to Rome, on business, she found herself shut up in a car +with a gorgeous officer and a meek young man, who read papers all the +way. The tall soldier, in his gray and silver uniform, with a furred, +frogged, and braided jacket, not to mention the high boots or the +becoming cap, was so very polite to the lone lady that she could not +remain dumb without positive rudeness. So Amanda conversed in her most +charming manner, finding inspiration doubtless in the dark eyes and +musical voice of her handsome _vis-a-vis_, for the officers from Turin +are things of beauty and joys for ever to those who love to look on +manly men. + +Among other things, the two had a little joke about the Baron +Rothschild, who rode about Albano on a tiny donkey with two servants +behind him; also the Baroness, a painfully plain woman, with an ugly dog +the image of herself. + +When they arrived at Rome, however, their joke was turned against them, +by the discovery that the meek man was the Baron's secretary, who would +doubtless repeat their chat at head-quarters. To see the handsome man +slap his brow, and then laugh like a boy at the fun, was worth a longer +journey, Amanda thought, as he put her into a carriage, gave her his +best martial salute, and went clanking away about his own affairs. + +Amanda returned at 4 P.M., and her emotions may be imagined when the +dark face of her officer peered in at the car window, and the melodious +voice asked if he might be permitted to enter. Of course he might; and, +as no secretary now spoilt the _tete-a-tete_, Mars became delightfully +confidential, and poured his woes into the sympathising bosom of Amanda. + +It had been a great affliction to him that his regiment was quartered at +Albano for some months. _Mio Dio!_ so dull was it, life had already +become a burden; but now, if the Signorina was to be there, if she +permitted him to make himself known to her party, what joys were in +store for him. The Signorina loved to ride. Behold he had superb horses +languishing in the stables, that henceforth were dedicated to her use. +His fellow officers were gentlemen of good family, brave as lions, and +dying of _ennui_; if they might be presented to the ladies, life would +be worth having, and Albano a paradise, &c. + +To all this devotion the prudent Amanda listened with pleasure, but +promised nothing till Signore Mars had made the acquaintance of certain +American gentleman and married ladies, then it would be possible to +enjoy the delights of which he spoke. The Colonel vowed he would +instantly devote himself to this task, and thus they came to the lonely +little station at Albano. + +Amanda had ordered the carriage to meet her; but it was not there, and +she was forced to wait till all her fellow-passengers were gone. All but +the gallant officer, who decorously remained outside, marching to and +fro as if on guard, till his servant came with his horse. Then he begged +to be allowed to see why the carriage did not come, and Amanda +consented, for night was falling, and two miles of mud lay between her +and home. + +Away dashed the servant, but his master did not follow: standing in the +doorway, he declared that he must remain as the Signorina's protector, +for no trains were due for hours; the depot man was gone, and it was too +late for any lady to stay there alone. Again Amanda gratefully +consented, wondering what would be the end of her adventure; and again +the stately Colonel resumed his march outside, singing as he tramped, +and evidently enjoying the escort duty that gave him so good an +opportunity of displaying not only his gallantry, but his fine voice and +handsome figure. + +Down rattled the carriage at last, accompanied, to Amanda's dismay, by +three of the Colonel's friends, who had evidently received a hint of +the affair, and had come to have a hand in it. + +With much bowing of the gentlemen, and much prancing of their fine +horses, Amanda was handed to her seat, and went lumbering back to the +hotel with her splendid escort careering about her, to the great +edification of the town. + +When the rescued damsel told the tale to her mates, Matilda tore her +hair and lamented that she had not been there. Even the stern Livy had +no lecture for the erring lamb, but was as full of interest as either of +the girls, for anything in the shape of a soldier was dear to her heart. + +When the ladies rode forth next day, three elegant St. Georges in full +rig saluted as these modern Unas ambled by on their meek donkeys--a +performance punctually executed ever afterward whenever the three blue +veils appeared. Much curvetting went on before the hotel door; much +clanking of spurs and sabres was heard in the little lane on to which +the apartment of the ladies looked, and splendid officers seemed to +spring up like violets in secluded spots where maidens love to stroll. + +It was all very nice; and the girls were beginning to feel that the +charms of Albano rivalled those of Rome, when a sad blow upset their +castles in the air, and desolated the knights over the way. + +The highly respectable Americans who were to serve as the link between +the soldiers and the ladies decidedly declined the office, objecting to +the martial gentleman as being altogether too dangerous to bring into +the dove-cot. So the poor dears sighed in vain, and the longing damsels +never rode the fine horses that were temptingly paraded before them on +all occasions. + +They did their best; but it was soon evident to Lavinia that in some +unguarded moment the impetuous Mat would yield to the spell and go +gambading away for a ride _sans_ duenna, _sans_ habit, _sans_ propriety, +_sans_ everything. Amanda likewise seemed losing her head, and permitted +the dark-eyed Colonel to talk to her when they met; only a moment--but +what a perilous moment it was!--when this six-foot Mars leaned over a +green hedge and talked about the weather in the softest Italian that +ever melted a woman's heart. + +'I'm going to Venice next week; so you may as well make up your minds to +it, girls. I _cannot_ bear this awful responsibility any longer; for I +am very sure you will both be off to Turin with those handsome rascals +if we stay much longer. My mind is made up, and I won't hear a word.' + +Thus Lavinia, with a stern countenance; for the romantic old lady felt +the charm as much as the girls did, and decided that discretion was the +better part of valour for the whole party. + +'I should never dare to go home and tell my honoured parents that Mat +had run away with a man as handsome as Jove, and as poor as Job. +Amanda's indignant relatives would rise up and stone me if I let her +canter into matrimony with the fascinating Colonel, who may have a wife +and ten children in Turin, for all we know. They _must_ be torn away at +once, or my character as duenna is lost for ever.' + +Having made up her mind, Livy steeled her heart to all appeals, and +wrote letters, packed trunks, and watched her little flock like a +vigilant sheep-dog. + +How she would ever have got them through that last week is very +uncertain, if a providential picnic had not helped her. + +A fair was held in the town, and a delightful surprise-party was got up +among the artists of Rome. Twenty-five came driving over in a big +carriage, with four gaily decorated horses, postilions, hampers of +lunch, flutes and horns, and much jollity bottled up for the occasion. + +A very festive spectacle they made as they drove through the narrow +streets with flowers and streamers in their hats, singing and joking in +true artistic style. + +They meant to have lunched in the open air; but, as it was cloudy, +decided to spread the feast at the hotel. Such a delightful revel as +followed! A scene from the 'Decameron,' modernised, would give some idea +of it; for after the banquet all adjourned to the gardens of the Doria +Villa, and there disported themselves as merrily as if all the plagues +of life were quite forgotten, and death itself among the lost arts. +Flirting and dancing, charades and singing, stories and statues, poems +and pictures, gossip and gambols, absorbed the hours as pleasantly as in +the olden time. And if the costumes were not as picturesque as those in +Vedder's fine picture, the ladies were as lovely, the gentlemen as +gallant, and all much better behaved than those of Boccaccio's party. + +A few drops of rain quenched the fun at its height, and sent the +revellers home as fast as four horses could take them, leaving the town +gaping after them, and our ladies much enlivened by the delights of the +day. + +This third and last event pleasantly ended their sojourn at Albano; for +a day or two later they vanished, leaving the dear officers +disconsolate till the next batch of travelling ladies came to comfort +their despair. + +A week was spent in Venice, floating about all day from one delightful +old church to another, or paying visits to Titians and Tintorettos; +buying little turtles, photographs, or Venetian glass; eating candied +fruit and seeing the doves fed in the square of San Marco; visiting +shops full of dusty antiquities, or searching the stalls on the Rialto +for Moor's-head rings; being rowed to the Lido by Giacomo in a red sash; +and lulled to sleep at night by the songs of a chorus that floated under +the windows in the moonlight. + +Lavinia never could get used to seeing the butcher, the baker, and the +postman go their rounds in boats. Matilda was in bliss, with a gondola +all to herself, where she sat surrounded with water-colours, trying to +paint everything she saw; for here the energy she had lost at Rome +seemed to return to her. Amanda haunted a certain shop, trying to make +the man take a reasonable sum for a very ancient and ugly bit of +jewellery, which she called 'a sprigalario,' for want of a better name; +and after each failure she went off to compose herself with a visit to +the Doges. + +Of course they all saw the Bridge of Sighs and the dungeons below, with +their many horrors; likewise a Mass at St. Mark's, where the Patriarch +was a fat old soul in red silk, even to his shoes and holy +pocket-handkerchief; and the service appeared to consist in six purple +priests dressing and undressing him like an old doll, while a dozen +white-gowned boys droned up in a gold cock-loft, and many beggars whined +on the dirty floor below. + +Do other travellers eat locusts, I wonder, as ours did one sunny day, +sitting on church steps, and discover that the food of the Apostle was +not the insect whose 'zeeing' foretells hot weather; but the long, dry +pods of the locust-tree, sweet to the taste, but rather 'dry fodder,' as +the impious Livy remarked after choking herself with a quarter of a yard +of it. + +When the week was up Mat implored to be left behind with Angela, the +maid, and Brio, a big poodle possessed of the devil. But she was torn +away, and only consoled by the promise of many new gloves, with as many +buttons as she pleased, when they got to Munich. + +'The lakes are the proper entrance into Italy, and Venice a lovely exit. +One soon tires of it, and is ready to leave, which is an excellent +arrangement, though I should prefer to depart in some more cheerful +vehicle than a hearse,' observed Lavinia, as they left the long, black +gondola at the steps of the station. + +'Haven't you a sigh for those lovely lakes, a tear for Albano, a pang of +regret for Rome?' asked Amanda, hoping to wring one moan for Italy from +the old lady. + +'Not a sigh, not a tear, not a regret. I find I like them all better the +farther I get from them, and by the time I am at home I may be able to +say "I adore them," but I doubt it,' returned the incorrigible Livy, and +from that moment Amanda regarded her Granny as one dead to all the dear +delusions of antiquity. + + + + +VI. + +_LONDON._ + + +'From this moment I cease to be the commander-in-chief. Livy adores +England, can speak the language, understands the money, and knows all +about London; so _she_ shall be leader, and I will repose after my long +labour.' With this remark Amanda retired from office covered with glory, +and her mates voted to erect a statue in her honour as a token of their +undying gratitude. + +Lavinia took the lead from the moment they landed at St. Catherine's +Warf; and though somewhat demoralized by a rough passage of eighteen +hours from Antwerp, was equal to the occasion. She did love England, and +thought London the most delightful city in the world, next to Boston. +Its mud and fog were dear to her; its beef and beer were nectar and +ambrosia, after the continental slops and messes; its steady-going, +respectable citizens, beautiful in her eyes, and the words 'home' and' +comfort' were not an idle mockery here. + +Therefore the old lady joyfully sniffed the smoky air, gazed with +tenderness on the grimy houses, and cast herself, metaphorically +speaking, into the arms of a stout, ruddy-faced porter, as if at last +she had found a man and a brother. + +Nobly did the burly Briton repay her confidence and earn the shilling +which in England makes all things possible. He bore them to the station, +got tickets, checked luggage, put the ladies in a first-class +compartment, gave them all necessary directions about the hotel they +were after, and when the bell rang touched his cap with a smile upon his +dear, red face, which caused Lavinia to add a sixpence to the shilling +she gave him with a mental blessing. + +'This is truly a decent country. See how well one is cared for, how +civil everybody is, how honest, how manly,' began Livy, as she mounted +her hobby, and prepared for a canter over the prejudices of her friend; +for Amanda detested England because she knew nothing of it. + +'The cabman cheated us, asking double fares,' replied the dear girl, +wrapping herself in many cloaks and refusing to admire the fog. + +'Not at all,' cried Livy; 'the trunks were immense, and you'll find we +shall have to pay extra for them everywhere. It is the same as having +them weighed and paying for the pounds, only this saves much time and +trouble. Look at the handsome guard in his silver-plated harness. How +much nicer he is than a gabbling Italian, or a Frenchman who compliments +you one minute and behaves like a brute the next! It does my soul good +to see the clean, rosy faces, and hear good English instead of +gibberish.' + +'Never in my life have I seen such tall, fine-looking men, only they are +all fair, which isn't my style,' observed Matilda, with a secret sigh +for the dark-eyed heroes from Turin. + +Thus conversing, they soon came to the G---- Hotel just at the end of the +railway, and without going out of the station found themselves settled +in comfortable rooms. + +'Regard, if you please, these toilette arrangements--two sorts of +bath-pan, two cans of cold water, one of hot, two big pitchers, much +soap, and six towels about the size of table-cloths. I call that an +improvement on the continental cup, saucer, and napkin accommodation,' +said Lavinia, proudly displaying a wash-stand that looked like a +dinner-table laid for a dozen, such was the display of glass, china, and +napery. + +'The English certainly are a clean people,' replied Amanda, softening a +little as she remembered her fruitless efforts to find a bath-pan in +Brittany, where the people said the drought was caused by the English +using so much water. + +'They need more appliances for cleanliness than any other race, because +they live in such a dirty country,' began Matilda, removing the soot +from her face in flakes. + +What more she might have said is unknown; for Livy closed her mouth with +a big sponge, and all retired to repose after the trials of the past +night. + +'Now, my dears, you shall have food fit for Christian women to eat. No +weak soup, no sour wine, no veal stewed with raisins, nor greasy salad +made of all the weeds that grow. Beef that will make you feel like +giants, and beer that will cheer the cockles of your hearts; not to +mention cheese which will make you wink, and bread with a little round +button atop of the loaf like the grand Panjandrum in the old story.' + +Thus Lavinia enthusiastically, as she led her flock of two into the +eating-room at luncheon time. Being seated at a little table by one of +the great windows, the old lady continued to sing the praises of +Britannia while wafting for the repast. + +'Isn't this better than a stone-floored _cafe_ with nine clocks all +wrong, seven mirrors all cracked, much drapery all dirty, a flock of +_garcons_ who fly about like lunatics, and food which I shudder to +think of? Look at this lofty room; this grave thick carpet; that +cheerful coal-fire; these neat little tables; these large, clean +windows; these quiet, ministerial waiters, who seem to take a paternal +interest in your wants, and best of all in this simple, wholesome, +well-cooked food.' + +Here the arrival of a glorified beefsteak and a shining pint-pot of +foaming ale give an appropriate finish to Livy's lecture. She fell upon +her lunch like a famished woman, and was speechless till much meat had +vanished, and the ale was low in the pot. + +'It _is_ good,' admitted Amanda, who took to her beer like a born +Englishwoman, and swallowed some of her prejudices with her delicious +beef. + +'It's such a comfort to know that I am not eating a calf's brains or a +pig's feet, that I can enjoy it with a free mind, and the sight of +those two beautiful old gentlemen gives it an added relish,' said +Matilda, who had been watching a pair of hale old fellows eat their +lunch in a solid, leisurely way that would have been impossible to an +American. + +'It is so restful to see people take things calmly, and not bolt their +meals, or rush about like runaway steam-engines. It is this moderation +that keeps Englishmen so hearty, jolly, and long-lived. They don't tear +themselves to pieces as we do, but take time for rest, exercise, food, +and recreation, like sensible people as they are. It is like reposing on +a feather-bed to live here, and my tired nerves rejoice in it,' said +Lavinia, eating bread and cheese as if that was her mission in life. + +'A slight amount of haste will be advisable, my Granny, unless we intend +to spend all our substance on these restful comforts of yours. This +hotel is delightfully cosy, but expensive; so the quicker we go into +lodgings the better for us,' suggested the thrifty Amanda, seeing that +Livy was too infatuated to care for cost. + +'I'll go the first thing to-morrow and look at the rooms Mrs. Blank +recommended to us. This afternoon we will rest and write letters, unless +some one comes to call,' said Livy, leading her girls to the +reading-room, where sleep-inviting chairs, tables supplied with +writing-materials, and groves of newspapers, wooed the stranger to +repose. + +Hardly were they seated, however, than Jeames brought in the card of a +friend who had been told when they would arrive, and hastened at once to +meet them. How pleasant is the first familiar face one sees in a strange +land! Doubly pleasant was Mr. C.'s, because he brought hospitable +invitations from other friends, kind welcomes, and tickets to several of +the art exhibitions then open. + +Hardly had he gone, after a half-hour's chat, than another card was +handed, and the name it bore caused a slight flutter in the dove-cot. A +friend of Miss Livy's, in Boston, had sent orders to his brother in +London to devote himself to the wandering ladies when they came. They +had never met; the poor man didn't care to have his quiet invaded by +strange women, and to do the honours of London is no small task: yet +this heroic gentleman obeyed orders without a murmur; and, leaving his +artistic seclusion, shouldered his burden with the silent courage of a +Spartan. + +A grave, dark, little man, with fine eyes, quiet manners, and a +straight-forward way with him that suited blunt Livy excellently. How +he dared to face the three unknown women so calmly, listen to their +impossible suggestions so politely, and offer himself as a slave so +cheerfully, will for ever remain a mystery to those grateful souls. + +His first service was to pack them into a cab and bear them safely to +the bankers for letters and money; and this he followed up by several +weeks of servitude, which must have been worse than Egyptian bondage. + +Two more large ladies joined the party after they were settled in +lodgings at Kensington; but, undaunted by the fact, this long-suffering +man escorted the whole five to galleries and theatres, trips into the +city, and picnics in the country; went shopping with them, lugged +parcels, ran errands, paid bills, and was in fact the sheet-anchor of +the whole party. Imagine the emotions of one shy man when called upon +to lead a flock of somewhat imposing ladies everywhere; to have two cabs +full on all occasions; to be obliged to support the invalids to follow +the caprices of the giddy, to gratify the demands of the curious, and to +hear the gabble of the whole five day after day. + +Buerger's Brave Man was a coward compared to him; for he not only gave +his days, but his evenings also, joining in endless games of whist, +drinking much weak tea, and listening to any amount of twaddle on all +subjects. + +The society was not such as intelligent men enjoy, being composed of two +Egyptian boys and three fussy old ladies. One of them was immensely +stout, wore a bright green cap, with half-a-pint of scarlet cherries +bobbing on her brow. She talked on all subjects, and handed round an +album full of her own poems on all occasions. The second must have been +a sister of 'Mr. T.'s Aunt,' so grim and incoherent was she. Sitting in +the corner, she stared at the world around her with an utterly +expressionless countenance, and when least expected broke out with some +startling remark, such as, 'If that fence had been painted green we +should get to heaven sooner,' or 'Before I had fits my memory was as +good as anybody's, but my daughter married a clergyman, and took it with +her.' + +The third antiquity was the hostess, a buxom lady, much given to gay +attire and reminiscences of past glory, 'Before me 'usband went into +public life.' The strangers innocently supposed the departed Mr. K. to +have been an M.P. at least, and were rather taken aback on learning that +he had been a pawnbroker. + +The Egyptian youths were handsome, dark lads, with melodious voices, +lustrous eyes, and such fiery tempers that one never knew whether they +were going to pass the bread or stab one with the carving-knife. + +As a slight mitigation of this slow society, the Russian from Pension +Paradis appeared with his broadcloth more resplendent than ever. The +ladies had seen him in Rome; but the fever scared him away, and he was +now fleeing from another lodging-house, where the hostess evidently +intended to marry him to her daughter, in the MacStinger fashion. + +In this varied circle did the devoted being afore-mentioned pass many +hours after the day's hard labour was happily over, and when anyone +pitied him for leading the life of a galley-slave, he hid his anguish +and answered with a smile,-- + +'My brother told me to do it, and I never disobey Tom. In fact, I find I +rather like it.' + +That last fib was truly sublime, and the name of Cassabianca pales +before that of one who obeyed fraternal commands to the letter, and +tried to love his duty, heavy as it was. If, as has been sometimes +predicted, England had gone under just then, it might truly have been +said,-- + + + Though prince and peer and poet rare + Were sunk among the piles, + The noblest man who perished there + Was faithful W. N----s. + + +The sight-seeing fever raged fiercely at first, and the flock of +Americans went from Windsor Castle to the Tower of London, from +Westminster Abbey to Madame Taussaud's Waxwork Show, with a vigour that +appalled the natives. They would visit two or three galleries in the +morning, lunch at Dolly's (the dark little chop-house which Johnson, +Goldsmith, and the other worthies used to frequent in the good old +times), go to Richmond in the afternoon and dine at the 'Star and +Garter,' or to Greenwich and eat 'white baits fish,' as the Russian +called that celebrated dish, and finish off the evening at some theatre, +getting home at midnight, in a procession of two cabs and a hansom. + +When the first excitement was over, Lavinia and Matilda took a turn at +society, having friends in London. Amanda could not conquer her +prejudices sufficiently to accompany them, and, falling back on the +climate as her excuse, stayed at home and improved her mind. + +'I feel now like girls in novels. You are the Duchess of Devonshire and +I am Lady Maud Plantagenet, going to a ball at Buckingham Palace. I know +that I was made to sit in the lap of luxury: it agrees with me so well,' +said Matilda, as the two rolled away to Aubrey House in a brougham, all +lamps, glass, and satin. Her long blue train lay piled up before her, +the light flashed on her best Roman ear-rings, her curls were in their +most picturesque array, and--crowning joy of all--cream-coloured gloves, +with six buttons, covered her arms, and filled her soul with happiness, +because they were so elegant and cost so little, being bought in Rome +just after the flood. + +Dowager Livy responded gravely from the depths of her silver-grey silk, +enlivened with pink azaleas,-- + +'My child, thank your stars that you are a free-born Yankee, and have no +great name or state to keep up. Buckingham Palace is all very well, and +I shouldn't mind calling on Mrs. Guelph, or Saxe Coburg, whichever it +is, but I much prefer to be going to the house of a Radical M.P., who is +lending a hand to all good works. Mrs. T. is a far more interesting +woman to me than Victoria, for her life is spent in helping her +fellow-creatures. I consider her a model Englishwoman--simple, sincere, +and accomplished; full of good sense, intelligence, and energy. Her +house is open to all, friend and stranger, black and white, rich and +poor. Great men and earnest women meet there; Mazzini and Frances Power +Cobbe, John Bright and Jean Ingelow, Rossetti the poet, and Elizabeth +Garrett the brave little doctor. Though wealthy and living in an +historical mansion, the host is the most unassuming man in it, and the +hostess the simplest dressed lady. Their money goes in other ways, and +the chief ornament of that lovely spot is a school, where poor girls may +get an education. Mrs. T. gave a piece of her own garden for it, and +teaches there herself, aided by her friends, who serve the poor girls +like mothers and sisters, and help to lift them up from the slough of +despond in which so many sink. That beats anything you'll find in +Buckingham Palace, sister Mat.' + +'If they want a drawing-teacher I'll offer myself, for I think that is +regularly splendid,' said Matilda warmly, as Livy paused for breath +after her harangue. + +With these new ideas in her head, Lady Maud enjoyed her party, while the +Duchess revelled in radicals to her heart's content; for Aubrey House +was their head-quarters, and all were out in full force. It was cheering +to our spinster to find that things had moved a good deal since a former +visit, five or six years before, when Mill had carried into the House of +Commons a Woman's Rights petition that filled both arms. People laughed +then, and the stout-hearted women laughed also, but said, 'Our next +petition shall be so big it will have to go in a wheel-barrow.' Now the +same people talked over the question soberly, and began to think +something besides fun might come of it. The pioneers rejoiced over +several hard-won battles, and the scoffers came to see that the truest +glory was won by those who did the hard work, and stood by a good cause +when most unpopular; not by those who kept out of the field till the +fight was over, and then came in to wave the flags and beat the drums +over victories they had not helped to win. + +'It seems to me that these Englishwomen make less noise and do more work +than we Americans. I shouldn't dare to say so in public; but their +quiet, orderly ways suits me better than the more demonstrative +performances of my friends at home. Slow coaches as we call them, I +should not be surprised if they got the suffrage before we did, as the +tortoise won in the fable,' was Lavinia's secret thought as they drove +away, after a very charming evening. + +Perhaps the fact that reforms of all sorts had been poured into her ears +till her head was like a hive of bees, may account for this unpatriotic +thought. Or it may be the pleasant effect of the healthful aspect of +these English workers. Old or young, all seemed to have cheerful, +well-balanced minds, in strong, healthy bodies. No one complained of her +nerves, or let them unconsciously put a sharp edge to her tongue, give a +blue tinge to the world, or sour the milk of human kindness in her +heart. Less quick and bright, perhaps, than the ladies over the sea, but +more womanly, and full of a quiet tenacity of purpose better than +eloquence. + +Miss Livy's tastes being of a peculiar sort, and pictures having palled +upon her to such a degree that she couldn't even look at an ornamental +sign-board without disgust, she often left her more artistic friends and +went forth on excursions of her own. As she never used either map or +guide book, it was a wonder how she found her way; and the infants were +often on the point of sending for the city crier, if there is such a +functionary, to find the lost duenna. But old Livy always turned up at +last, mud to the eyes, tired out, and more deeply impressed than ever +with the charms of London. + +One day she set forth to hear Spurgeon. Being told that Lambeth was a +wretched quarter of the city, that the Tabernacle was two or three miles +away, and very difficult to enter when found, only added zest to the +thing, and she departed, sure of finding adventures, if not Spurgeon. + +If an omnibus conductor had not befriended her, she would probably have +found herself at Hampstead or Chelsea, for London busses are as +bewildering as London streets. Thanks to this amiable man, who evidently +felt that the stranger in his gates needed all his care, the old lady +safely reached the Elephant and Castle, and was dismissed with a moss +rose-bud from the lips of her friend, a reassuring pat on the shoulder, +and a paternal ''Ere yer are, my dear,' which unexpected attentions +caused her to depart with speed. + +There certainly was need of a Tabernacle in that quarter, for the +poverty and wickedness were very dreadful. Boys not yet in their teens +staggered by half-tipsy, or lounged at the doors of gin-shops. +Bonnetless girls roamed about singing and squabbling. Forlorn babies +played in the gutter, and men and women in every stage of raggedness +and degradation marred the beauty of that fair Sunday morning. + +Crowds were swarming into the Tabernacle: but, thanks to the order a +friend had given her, Miss Livy was handed to a comfortable seat, with a +haggard Magdalen on one side and a palsy-stricken old man on the other. +Staring about her, she saw an immense building with two galleries +extending round three sides, and a double sort of platform behind and +below the pulpit, which was a little pen lifted high that all might see +and hear. + +Every seat, aisle, window-ledge, step, and door-way, was packed with a +strange congregation; all nations, all colours, all ages, and nearly all +bearing the sad marks of poverty or sin. They all sung, cried out if +anything affected or pleased them in the sermon, and listened with +interest to the plain yet fervent words of the man who has gathered +together this flock of black sheep and is so faithful a shepherd to +them. + +Every one knows how Spurgeon looks in pictures, but in the pulpit he +reminded Livy of Martin Luther. A square, florid face, stout figure, a +fine keen eye, and a natural, decided manner, very impressive. A strong, +clear voice of much dramatic power, and a way of walking the pulpit like +Father Taylor. + +His sermon was on 'Small Temptations,' and he illustrated it by facts +and examples taken from real life, pointing out several of his +congregation, and calling them by name, which original proceeding seemed +to find favour with his people. He used no notes, but talked rather than +preached; and leaning over the railing, urged, argued, prayed, and sang +with a hearty eloquence, very effective, and decidedly refreshing after +High Church mummery abroad, and drowsy Unitarianism at home. Now and +then he stopped to give directions for the comfort of his flock in a +free and easy manner, which called up irresistible smiles on the faces +of strangers. + +'Mrs. Flacker, you'd better take that child into the ante-room: he's +tired.' 'Come this way, friends: there's plenty of room.' 'Open all the +windows, Manning: it's very warm.' And when a sad sort of cry +interrupted him, he looked down at an old woman shaking with epilepsy, +and mildly remarked, 'Don't be troubled, brethren: our sister is subject +to fits,' and preached tranquilly on. + +For two hours he held that great gathering, in spite of heat, +discomfort, and other afflictions of the flesh, and ended by saying, in +a paternal way,-- + +'Now remember what I've said through the week, and next Sunday show me +that I haven't talked in vain.' + +He read a list of meetings for every night in the week. One especially +struck Livy, as it was for mothers to meet and talk over with him the +best ways of teaching and training their children. Spurgeon evidently +does not spare his own time and strength; and whatever his creed may be, +he is a good Christian in loving his neighbour _better_ than himself, +and doing the work his hand finds to do with all his might. + +'That is a better church than most of those I enter where respectable +saints have the best seats, and there is no place for sinners,' said +Livy when she got home. 'Spurgeon's congregation preached more +eloquently to me than he did. The Magdalen cried as if her heart was +broken, and I am sure those tears washed some of her sins away. The +feeble old man looked as if he had found a staff for his trembling hands +to lay hold upon, and the forlorn souls all about me, for a time at +least, laid down their burdens and found rest and comfort in their +Father's house. It did me more good than the preaching of all the +bishops in London, or the finest pageant at St. Paul's; and I am truly +glad I went, though the saucy conductor did smirk at me over the +rosebud.' + +In contrast to this serious expedition, the old lady had a very jolly +one not long afterward. A certain congenial Professor asked her one day +what person, place, or thing in London she most desired to see. + +Clasping her hands with the energy of deep emotion, she replied,-- + +'The home of the immortal Sairy Gamp. Long ago I made a vow, if I ever +came to London I'd visit that spot. Let me keep my vow.' + +'You shall!' responded the Professor with a responsive ardour, which +caused Livy to dive into her waterproof without another word. + +Away they went in a pouring rain, and what people thought of the damp +but enthusiastic couple who pervaded the city that day I can't say; I +only know a merrier pair of pilgrims never visited those grimy shrines. +They met several old friends, and passed several familiar spots by the +way. Major Bagstock and Cousin Phenix stared at them from a club-house +window. Tigg Montague's cab dashed by them in Regent Street, more +gorgeous than ever. The brothers Cheeryble went trotting cityward arm in +arm, with a smile and ha'penny for all the beggars they met; and the +Micawber family passed them in a bus, going, I suppose, to accompany +the blighted Wilkins to gaol. + +In a certain grimly genteel street they paused to stare up at a row of +grimly respectable houses; for, though the name wasn't on any of the +doors, they were sure Mr. Dombey still lived there. A rough dog lay on +one of the doorsteps, and a curtain fluttered at an open upper window. +Poor Di was growling in his sleep, and above there little Paul was +watching for the golden water on the wall, while faithful Florence sung +to him, and Susan Nipper put away derisive sniffs and winks in closets +and behind doors for the benefit of 'them Pipchinses.' + +Coming to a poorer part of the city, they met Tiny Tim tapping along on +his little crutch, passed Toby Veck at a windy street-corner, and saw +all the little Tetterbys playing in the mud. + +'Come down this street, and take a glimpse at St. Giles's, the worst +part of London,' said the Professor; and, following, Livy saw misery +enough in five minutes to make her heart ache for the day. A policeman +kept near them, saying it wasn't safe to go far there alone. + +Vice, poverty, dirt, and suffering reigned supreme within a stone's +throw of one of the great thoroughfares, and made Alsatia dangerous +ground for respectable feet. Here, too, they saw familiar phantoms: poor +Jo, perpetually moving on; and little Oliver led by Nancy, with a shawl +over her head and a black eye; Bill Sykes, lounging in a doorway, +looking more ruffianly than ever; and the Artful Dodger, who kept his +eye on them as two hopeful 'plants' with profitable pockets ready for +him. + +They soon had enough of this, and hurried on along High Holborn, till +they came to Kingsgate Street, so like the description that I am sure +Dickens must have been there and taken notes. They knew the house in a +moment: there were the two dingy windows over the bird-shop; the checked +curtains were drawn, but of course the bottomless bandboxes, the wooden +pippins, green umbrella, and portrait of Miss Harris were all behind +them. It seemed so real that they quite expected to see a red, snuffy +old face appear, and to hear a drowsy voice exclaim: 'Drat that bell: +I'm a coming. Don't tell me it's Mrs. Wilkins, without even a pincushion +prepared.' + +While Livy stood gazing in silent satisfaction (merely regretting that +the name on the door was Pendergast, not Sweedle-pipes), the Professor +turned to a woman, and asked with admirable gravity, 'Can you tell me +where Mrs. Gamp lives?' + +'What's her business?' demanded the matron, with interest. + +'A nurse, ma'am.' + +'Is she a little fat woman?' + +'Fat, decidedly, and old,' returned the Professor, without a smile on +his somewhat cherubic countenance. + +'Well, she lives No. 5, round the corner.' + +On receiving this unexpected reply, they looked at one another in comic +dismay; but would certainly have gone to No. 5, and taken a look at the +modern Sairy, if the woman hadn't called out as they moved on-- + +'I b'lieve that nuss's name is Britiain, not Gamp; but you can ask.' + +Murmuring a hasty 'thank you,' they fled precipitately round the corner, +and there enjoyed a glorious laugh under an umbrella, to the great +amazement of all beholders. + +Being on a Dickens pilgrimage, they went to Furnival's Inn, where he +wrote 'Pickwick' in a three-story room, and read it to the old porter. +The same old porter told them all about it, and quite revelled in the +remembrance. It did one's heart good to see the stiff, dried-up old +fellow thaw and glow with the recollection of the handsome young man who +was kind to him long ago, before the world had found him out. + +'Did you think the book would be famous when he read it to you in 1834, +as you say?' asked the Professor, beaming at him in a way that would +have melted the heart of the stiff-tailed lion of the Northumberlands, +if he'd possessed such an organ. + +'O dear, yes, sir; I felt sure it would be summat good, it made me laugh +so. _He_ didn't think much of it; but I know a good thing when I see +it;' and the old man gave an important nod, as if all the credit of the +blessed 'Pickwick' belonged to him. 'He married Miss Hogarth while +livin' here; and you can see the room, if you like,' he added, with a +burst of hospitality, as the almighty sixpence touched his palm. + +Up they went, over the worn stairs; and, finding the door locked, +solemnly touched the brass knob, read the name 'Ed Peck' on the plate, +and wiped their feet on a very dirty mat. It was ridiculous, of course; +but hero-worship is not the worst of modern follies, and when one's hero +has won from the world some of its heartiest smiles and tears, one may +be forgiven for a little sentiment in a dark entry. + +Next they went to the Saracen's Head, where Mr. Squeers stopped when in +London. The odd old place looked as if it hadn't changed a particle. +There was the wooden gallery outside, where the chamber-maids stood to +see the coach off; the archway under which poor Nicholas drove that cold +morning; the office, or bar, where the miserable little boys shivered +while they took alternate sips out of one mug, and bolted hunches of +bread and butter as Squeers 'nagged' them in private and talked to them +like a father in public. Livy was tempted to bring away a little +porter-pot hanging outside the door, as a trophy; but fearing Squeers's +squint eye was upon her, she refrained, and took a muddy pebble instead. + +They took a peep at the Temple and its garden. The fountain was not +playing, but it looked very pleasant, nevertheless; and as they stood +there the sun came out, as if anxious that they should see it at its +best. It was all very well to know that Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' +was played in Middle Temple Hall, that the York and Lancaster roses grew +here, that Dr. Johnson lived No. 1 Inner Temple Lane, and that Goldsmith +died No. 2 Brick Court, Middle Temple; these actual events and people +seemed far less real than the scenes between Pendennis and Fanny, John +Westlock and little Ruth Pinch. For their sakes Livy went to see the +place; and for their sakes she still remembers that green spot in the +heart of London, with the June sunshine falling on it as it fell that +day. + +The pilgrimage ended with a breathless climb up the Monument, whence +they got a fine view of London, and better still of Todgerses. Livy +found the house by instinct; and saw Cherry Pecksniff, now a sharp-nosed +old woman, sitting at the back window. A gaunt, anxious-looking lady, in +a massive bonnet, crossed the yard, with a basket in her hand; and the +Professor said at once, 'That's Mrs. Todgers, and the amount of gravy +single gentlemen eat is still weighing heavy on her mind.' As if to +make the thing quite perfect, they discovered fitful glimpses of a +tousled-looking boy, cleaning knives or boots, in a cellar-kitchen; and +all the lawyers in London couldn't have argued them out of their firm +belief that it was young Bailey, undergoing his daily torment in company +with the black beetles and the mouldy bottles. + +That nothing might be wanting to finish off the rainy-day ramble in an +appropriate manner, when Livy's companion asked what she'd have for +lunch, she boldly replied,-- + +'Weal pie and a pot of porter.' + +As she was not fond of either, it was a sure proof of the sincerity of +her regard for the persons who have made them immortal. They went into +an eating-house, and ordered the lunch, finding themselves objects of +interest to the other guests. But, though a walking doormat in point of +mud, and somewhat flushed and excited by the hustling, climbing, and +adoring, it is certain there wasn't a happier spinster in this 'Piljin +Projess of a wale,' than the one who partook of 'weal pie' in memory of +Sam Weller, and drank 'a modest quencher' to the health of Dick +Swiveller at the end of that delightful Dickens day. + +Much might be written about the domestic pleasures of English people, +but as the compiler of this interesting work believes in the sacredness +of private life, and has a holy horror of the dreadful people who +outrage hospitality by basely reporting all they have seen and heard, +she will practise what she preaches, and firmly resist the temptation to +describe the delights of country strolls with poets, cosey five-o'clock +teas in famous drawing-rooms, and interviews with persons whose names +are household words. + +This virtuous reticence leaves the best untold, and brings the story of +two of our travellers to a speedy end. Matilda decided to remain and +study art, spending her days copying Turner at the National Gallery, and +her evenings in the society of the eight agreeable gentlemen who adorned +the house where she abode. + +Amanda hurried home with friends to enjoy a festive summer among the +verdant plains of Cape Cod. With deep regret did her mates bid her +adieu, and nothing but the certainty of soon embracing her again would +have reconciled Livy to the parting; for in Amanda she had found that +rare and precious treasure, a friend. + +'Addio, my beloved Granny; take care of your dear bones and come home +soon,' said Amanda, in the little back entry, while her luggage was +being precipitated downstairs. + +'Heaven bless and keep you safe, my own Possum. I shall not stay long +because I can't possibly get on without you,' moaned Livy, clinging to +the departing treasure as Diogenes might have clung to his honest man, +if he ever found him; for, with better luck than the old philosopher, +Livy had searched long years for a friend to her mind, and got one at +last. + +'Don't be sentimental, girls' said Matilda, with tears in her eyes, as +she hugged her Mandy, and bore her to the cab. + +'Rome and Raphael for ever!' cried Amanda, as a cheerful parting salute. + +'London and Turner!' shouted Matilda with her answering war-cry. + +'Boston and Emerson!' sobbed Lavinia, true to her idols even in the +deepest woe. + +Then three damp pocket-handkerchiefs waved wildly till the dingy cab +with the dear Egyptian nose at the window, and the little bath-pan +clattering frantically up aloft, vanished round the corner, leaving a +void behind that all Europe could not fill. + +A few weeks later Livy followed, leaving Mat to enjoy the liberty with +which American girls may be trusted when they have a purpose or a +profession to keep them steady. And so ended the travels of the trio, +travels which had filled a year with valuable experiences, memorable +days, and that culture which a larger knowledge of the world, our +fellow-men, and ourselves gives to the fortunate souls to whom this +pleasure is permitted. + +One point was satisfactorily proved by the successful issue of this +partnership; for, in spite of many prophecies to the contrary, three +women, utterly unlike in every respect, had lived happily together for +twelve long months, had travelled unprotected safely over land and sea, +had experienced two revolutions, an earthquake, an eclipse, and a flood, +yet met with no loss, no mishap, no quarrel, and no disappointment worth +mentioning. + +With this triumphant statement as a moral to our tale, we would +respectfully advise all timid sisters now lingering doubtfully on the +shore, to strap up their bundles in light marching order, and push +boldly off. They will need no protector but their own courage, no guide +but their own good sense and Yankee wit, and no interpreter, if that +woman's best gift, the tongue, has a little French polish on it. + +Dear Amandas, Matildas, and Lavinias, why delay? Wait on no man, but +take your little store and invest it in something far better than Paris +finery, Geneva jewellery, or Roman relics. Bring home empty trunks, if +you will, but heads full of new and larger ideas, hearts richer in the +sympathy that makes the whole world kin, hands readier to help on the +great work God gives humanity, and souls elevated by the wonders of art +and the diviner miracles of Nature. + +Leave _ennui_ and discontent, frivolity and feebleness, among the ruins +of the Old World, and bring home to the New the grace, the culture, and +the health which will make American women what now they just fail of +being, the bravest, brightest, happiest, and handsomest women in the +world. + + +PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE +LONDON + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Shawl-Straps, by Louisa M. 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