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AUNT JO'S SCRAP-BAG

Is now full, and contains

I MY BOYS, and other stories.

II SHAWL-STRAPS. Sketches of a European Trip.

III. CUPID AND CHOW-CHOW, and other stories.

IV. MY GIRLS, and other stories.

V, JIMMY'S CRUISE IN THE PINAFORE, and

other stories.

VI. AN OLD-FASHIONED THANKSGIVING, and

other stories.

Six volumes neatly bound in cloth. Price ^ $6.00.

ROBERTS BROTHERS, Publishers,

Boston.

Messrs. Roberts Brothers* Publications.

MES. DODGE'S POPULAE BOOK.

A Portrait of Dorothy at Sixteen.

DONALD AND DOROTHY,

By MARY MAPES DODGE.

Beautifully Illustrated and Bound. Price ^2.00.

An honest tribute from an admiring friend.

"Dear Mrs. Dodge, — I have just finished your book called 'Donald and
Dorothy ' for the third or fourth time, and would like very much to know
whether Dorothy is a real person, and if so, what is her name? I am nearly as
old as Dorothy was at the close of the book, so am very much interested in her.
I would also like to know how old she is, and where she lives. If you would be
kind enough to reply, you would greatly oblige

Your admiring friend, ."

ROEERT.S BROTHERS. Publishers. Boston.

QTlc^xC^

THE NEW YORK I
PUBLIC LIBRARY

Let's see what it is ; " and, lighting a candle, the fair Amazons looked
boldly about. — Page 113.

:W YORK

-4 S

^;

AUNT JO'S Scrap-Bag

SHAWL-STRAPS.

By LOUISA M. ALCOTT,

AUTHOE OF "little WOMEN." "AX OLD-FA SHION'ED GIEL," "LITTLE MKK,
"HOSPITAL SKETCHES."

BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS

1893.

^v

TILKcIN FOi XDATl.jNS
R l!UO L

Bctered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, bj

LOUISA M. ALCOTT,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington

University Press: John Wilson & Son,
Cambridge.

CONTENTS.

I. Off

1

n. Brittany

18

in. France

68

IV. Switzerland ....•-

..... 128

V. Italy

150

VL London

m

mi

m

PEEFACE.

There is a sort of fate about writing books ol
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 ia
eafely shelved does peace descend upon the victim
of this mysterious doom.

The only way in which this affliction may bo
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.

Vi PREFACE.

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 interefiting shawl
strappists.

L. M j»

November, 1872

SHAWL-STRAPS,

OFF.

" /^N the first day of February we three will

^^ sail fi'om Boston for Messina, in the little
fruit s]iip * Wasp.' We shall probably be a month
going, unless we cross m 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.

" Hm-rah ! 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 deai. Think

of the balmy airs of Sicily, the oranges, the flowers.

Then a delicious month or two at Sorrento, with no

east winds, no slosh, no spring cleaning. We shall

1

2 SHA WL-STRAPS.

be as merry as grigs, and get as buxom as dairy-
maids in a montli," said the spriglitly 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 m
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 sur-
vive thirty days of standing on my head, and thirty
nights of sail-splitting, as we go slamming and lurch-
ing across two or three awful oceans ? " demanded
Lavinia, with the energy of despair.

Before any one could reply, Amanda's little Mer-
cury appeared with a note.

" The * Wasp ' will 7iot take passengers, and no
other fi-uit ship sails this spring," read Amanda.

" Oh dear ! " sighed Matilda.

"Saved ! " cried Lavinia.

" Be calm : we shall go, sooner or later, if I buy w
ship and sail her myself; " vrith wdiich indomitable
remark Amanda went forth to grapple with and con-
quer untoward circumstances.

OFF. 8

A month of plans, vicissitudes, and suspense fol-
lowed, during which Amanda strove manfully, Ma-
tilda suffered agonies of hope and fear, and Laviuia
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. \V ill 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

4 SHAWL- STRAPS.

pleasure," groaned Lavinia from among her pil-
lows.

" Very well, then, I leave you now, and shall ex-
pect 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
every thing was ready, and the sisters had nothing
eft to do but to sit and receive the presents that
fchowered upon them from all quarters. How kind
every one 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 gentle-
men 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 nf mosaic work wonder-

OFF 6

fill to behold. A supper celebrated the last evening ;
and even the doleful Lavinia, touched by such kind-
ness, emerged from her slough of despond and eleo«
trified the ball by dancing a jig with great spuit 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 caniage 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, —

6 SEAWL-STRAPS.

" Wait till to-morrow."

While Mat surveyed the steamer under the caro
of Devoted Being No. 10, who appeared to see them
ofij Lavinia arranged the state-room, 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 fiiends. 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 fiill of rosy visions of the joys of a

" Life on the ocean wave."

OFF. 7

"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 ojie minute.
Is it sea-sickness ? It's awful, but it will do me
good. Oh, yes ! I hope so. I've tried every thing
and feel worse and worse. Hold me ! save me ! Oh,
I wish I hadn't come ! "

"Shipmates ahoy! how are you, ray loves?" and
Amanda appeared rosy, calm, and gay with her pea-
jacket on, skirts close reefed, hat well to windward,
and every thing taut and ship-shape, for she was a
fine sailor and never missed a meal.

8 SHA WL-STRAPS.

Wails greeted her, and faint inquiiies 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," con-
tinued 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
gi'uel, 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

OFF. »

hair-brusb, and all the boots and shoes had a grand
promenade round tlie room.

" Don't speak to me ; don't look at me ; don't even
iJiink of me for three days at least. Go and enjoy
yom-selt* and leave us to our doom," with which
tragical lemark Lavinia drew her curtains and waa
seen no more.

Great heavens, what a week that was ! Rain,
wind, fog; creak, i)itcb, tofss; 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 sjjeculate upon the good effects of
travel u]ion the constitution. Then they suddenly
become daring, gay, and social ; rise, adorn them-
selves, pervade the cabins, sniff the odors 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

10 SHAWL- SI RAP iS.

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
lH;io\v in chrysalis state, fed by faithful Marie, vis"
ilcd by the ever-cheerful Amanda, and enlivened by
notes and messages from fellow- sufferers in far-olt*
cells.

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Walmars, Jr., 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 news])aper 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 mornhig
till night, smoke the best cigars, and dance divinely,"
as Mrs. Twaddle said, sitting erect in the saloon,
shtoutled in fur and velvet, with five diamond-ringa
well displayed as she recounted the diseases she had
enjoyed, and did the honors of a remarkable work-
basket, containing eight different sorts of scissors.

OFF. 11

" We ehfill be in to-morrow, so you'd better be dig-
ging up the treasures you have buried, you old
magi;)ie," said Mat, appearing to the pensive Livy on
the eleventh day.

"The sun is out, come on deck, and help us get
ap 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 ' Nau-
sea?'" added Amanda, popping her head into tne
den. Lavinia threw a pillow at her, but the
andaunted joker continued, —

"Also this: Financial — This being a feminine
paper, gold is no longer at Pa, but at Ma."

" Good ! Add this : Argument in favor 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 dis-
interred, from holes and corners of her berth, money,
nuts, and raisins ; books, biscuits, and literary efforts
much the worse for deluges of soup and daubs of
butter.

The cry of " Land ! " on the morrow caused pas-
sengers unseen before to appear like worms after a

12 SHA WL-STRAPS.

shower; all heroically did up their back hair, put
on their best suits, and walked forth w^ith the de-
lusive hope that no one would know how ill they
Lad been.

A French Marquis with a sickly little son, whose
diet of fried potatoes and sour wine perhaps
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, saffion-colored,
and imperious, likewise emerged from obscurity,
with a meek little husband, w^ho w^aited on her like 8
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 any one look-
ing at them.

A mysterious lady in green velvet with many dia-
monds, and a shabby, speechless companion, sailed
about the ship, regardless of the rumors told of her, —
deserted husbands, stolen jewelry, lovers waiting on
the other side, and many equally pleasant little tales.

The gentlemen with orange gloves and copper-

OFF 13

colored noses got themseWes up in the most superD
Btyle, though few were going to land at Brest, and
took tender farewells of such ladies as did, each pro-
fessing desolation and despair at the termination of
a twelve days' flirtation.

" I am not fond of dirt, but I could kneel doim
and kiss this mud, so grateftd 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 clamor
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 knowl-
edge of tongues.

Each perched accordingly on her one big trunk,
and tried to "clamor." 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 parsed and sent ofl" followed by its
rejoicing owner. Especially hard to bear was the
tight of llie green-velvet sinner, who with a smile or
two 'won the sternest ofiicial to pass her five trunki

14 5^^ WL-STRAPS.

without turning a key, and sailed away with a scorn-
ful glance at the virtuous Three planted on their
pioperty 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
*heir duty," and Amanda marched away to clutch a
oockaded victim by the shoulder with an awe-inspir-
ing 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 affa-
bly 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
QO officer there would touch her trunk because some

OFF. 16

American Express had put little leaden stamps here
ana there for some unknown j)urpose. 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
BO rash a step.

If they had comprehended the dire threats, the
personal remarks, and unmitigated scorn of thoso
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, eying 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.

16 SffA WL- STRAPS.

Then was Aiiiancla sublime, then did her comradea
for tlie first time learn the magnitude of her powers,
and realize the treasure they possessed. Stowing
Matilda and the smaller traps in the bus, and say-
ing to Lavinia, "Stand by me," this dauntless maid
faced one dozen blue-bloused, black-bearded, vocif-
erous, demonstrative Frenchmen, and, calmly offer'.
ing the i)roper 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 any thing and
let us get off before there is a mob," still the indomi-
table Amanda held forth the honest franc, and, when
no one would take it, laid it on a post, and entering
the omnibus drove calmly away.

" What should w^e do without you ? " sighed
Lavinia with fervent gratitude.

"Be cheated right and left, and never know it,
dear," responded Amanda, preparing for anotlier
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 dii-ty little hotel to dine, thou;;li

OFF. 17

expressly ordered to go at once tc the station.
Nothing would induce them to ahglit, tliougli the
landlord came out in person and begged them to lo
so; and, after a protracted struggle and a drive all
over the town, they finally reached the depot.

Here another demand for double fai-e was promptly
quenched by an appeal to the chef cle station^ wlo,
finding that Mademoiselle was wide awake, crushed
the driver and saw justice done.

Exhausted but triumphant, the three at length
found themselves rolling slowly toward Morlaix
through a green and blooming country, so unlike
the New England spring they had left behind that
they rejoiced like buttertiies in the sunshine.

n.

BRITTANY.

A FTER a late dinner, at which their appetites
were pretty effectualiy 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 gar^on whom
Dickens would have immortalized, 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 chig?ions,
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

BRITTANY. 19

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 dene
well ; but, after each draught, and he took many, thia
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 scan-
dalized I^avinia, informing him that she did not
understand French, assumed the demeanor of a griffin,
and glared stonily into space, when she was not dis-
locating 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 conver-
sation all at once, even when the fi-iend 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 cot

20 SHA WL-STRAPS,

permitted to strangers in America, be beat bis breast
and cried out, "My Go rl, so beautiful and so cold!
you do not compreliend tbat I am but a child. Par-
don, and smile again I conjure you.'*

But Mademoiselle would not smile, and folding
her bands in lier cloak appeared to slumber.
Whereat the gray-beaded infant groaned patheti-
cally, 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 do^vu,
with nothing between them and destruction appar-
ently but the little humpback, who drove rechlessly.

In this style they rattled uj) to the Porte de Brest,
feeling that they had reached Dinan " only by the
grace of God," as the beery man expressed it, when

BRITTANY. 21

he bowed and vanished, still oppressed with the
gloomy discovery that American women did not
appreciate hira.

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 labor.

Close by was a clean, rosy old woman whose
unusual occupation attracted our sj^inster's atten-
tion. Whisking ofi* the wheels of a diligence, tho
old lady greased them one by one, and put them on
again with the skill and speed of a regular black-
smith, and then began to pile many parcels into 3
char apparently waiting for them.

She was a brisk, cheery, old soul with the color
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
ribbon on the instep, and black hose. A gray
apron with pockets and a bib finished her ofl^

22 SHAWL-STRAPS.

making a very sensible as well as picturesque cos<
tume.

She was still hard at it when a big boy appeared
and began to heave the trunks into another char ;
but gave oul 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

BRITTANY. 2a

wrelcome 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 lier hospitality by a forme,r
lodger who had won her kind old heart.

While she purred over them, the luggage was
being bumped upstairs, the old woman shoulderin,^
trunk after trunk, and trudging up two steep flights
in the most marvellous way. But best of all was hei
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 trotteJ
briskly away wdth her carts, Madame C. informed
the new^-comers that the worthy soul was a widow
with many children, whom she brought up excel-
lently, 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, y(;t
always neat, cheery, and active; asking no help, and
literally earning her daily bread by the sweat of htr
brow. The ladies often saw her afterward, alwayi
trotting and tugging, smiling and content, as if
Bonie unseen hand kept wxU greased the wheels of

24 SEA WL-STRAPS.

lier own diligence, which carried such a heavy load
and never broke down.

]\Ji.ss Laviiiia being interested in AVomnn's Fii/fhlc
and Wrongs was much iini)ressed by tlie new revtt-
hitions oftlie capabililies of'lier sex, and soon ceasci
to be surprised at any demonstration of feminine
Btrenglli, 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, lea^ ing the men free to enjoy the only pur-
suits 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 jn-esented lo unaccus-
tomed eyes, especially the pig-mai-ket, held every
week, in the square before Madame C.'s house. At
dawn the squealing began, and was kept up till sun-
set. The carts came in from all the neighboring
hamlets, with tubs full of infant pigs, over which the
women watched with maternal care till they were
iafely deposited among the rows of tubs that stood

BRITTANY. 26

along the walk facing Anne of Bretalgne's gray old
tower, and the pleasant j^romenade which was once
the fosse about the city walls.

Here Madame woukl seat herself and knit briskly
till a purchaser appUed, 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 neighbor 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 Bos-
ton lady with a satchel full of ribbons and gloves.

More mature i)igs came to market on their own
logs, 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 ot
Bpirit till the trials and excitement of the day goaded
them to rebellion, when their antics furnished fun
for the public. y^& Livy observed that the women

•J6 S BAWL-STRAPS.

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, sympathize, coax, and gently beguile
the poo "• beasts, or devise ways of mitigating their be-
wilderment and woe, which did honor to the sex, and
triumphantly illustrated the [)ower of moral suasion.
One amiable lady, who had j^urchased 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 neighbors, and the donkey indignantly
refused to stir a step till the unseemly uproar was
calmed. But the Bretonne was equal to the occa-
sion ; 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
a})peased them at once, and produced a general lull ;
foj when the pigs stopped squealing, the duckjs
stopped quacking, the donkey ceased his bray, and
the party moved on in dignified silence, with the
youthful pigs, one black, one white, serenely regard-
mg life fi*om their bags.

BRITTANY. 27

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 aiTange 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 scuflSe whifh
would have annihilated most women.

28 iSHA WL-STRAPS.

When Madame C's wood was put in, the new-
comers were interested in watching the job, for it
was done in a truly Bretonesqiie manner. It arrived
in several odd carts, each drawn by four great
horses, with two men to each team ; and as the carta
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 let-
tuce, another dressing her baby, a third twirling
her distaff and a fourth with her little bowl of
souj:*, 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 sud-
denly 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 gray brute prancing like a mad
elephant, then returned to her baby, who was
placidly eating dirt, and with a polite " Vbila, me^

BRITTANY. 29

Bieurs ! ^ 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
iLto the cellar and piled them neatly. The men
Bto} ped about once an hour to smoke, drink eider, 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 f]-ancs a day, the woman half a franc ; and, as
nothing was taken out of it for wine or tobacco, her
ten cents probably went farther 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 sur-
rounded 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 incum-
brances, 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 washer-women were among the happiest of
these happy souls, and nowhere were seen prettier
pictui'es than they made, clustered round the foun«

80 SHA WI^STRAPH.

tains or tanks by the way, scrubbing, slapping, sing-
ing, 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 amis 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 tlie white kerchiefs, for no complaint did one
hear from these hard-working, happy women. The
Bame 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 lime, 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 hei
" master," his great age, his senses still quite perfect,
and most of all his strength, for now and then the

BRITTANY. 31

old tyrant left his bed to beat her, whicli 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 any one gave
her a plate of food, a little snuif, or any small com-
fort for hei 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 won-
derful."

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 won-
derful than his strength, and feeling sure that when

32 SUA WL-STRAPS.

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
nan 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 j^aiched
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 I 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
fi-eshly where the mother's 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 w^as 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

BRITTANY. - 33

memory of its gentle lady still lives, and is preserved
in this benevolent institution for the sick, the old
and ]3oor.

A school for girls was kept by the good nuns, and
the streets at certain hours were full of little dam-
sels, 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
answei'ing any questions inquisitive strangers asked
them. They learned to read, write, sew, and say
the catechism. Also to siiig, 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 favorite
resting-place.

In endeavoring to account for the freedom of the
women here, it was decided that it was owing to
Anne of Brittany, the "gentle and generous Du«
chesse," to whom her husband Louis XII. allou^ed
the uncontrolled government of the duchy. Relics
of the ^'-fiere Bretonne^'' as Louis called her, are stiiJ
tieasured everywhere, and it was pleasant to know
not only that she was an accomplished woman.

84 SHAWL^STRAPS.

WTiting tender letters in Lntin verse to her hu*-
band, but also a wise and just Princess to her
people, "showing herself by spirit and independenco
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 ot
Brittany !

While Miss Lavinia was making these observa-
tions 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
80 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 beau-
tiful."

They welcomed the prospect with pleasure, for
Dinan is not a whirl of gayety at the best of times ;
and that spring the drought, rumors of w? ., 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.

BRITTANY. 3l

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 uioire, with a diadem of
glossy braids on her sleek head, and many jet orna-
ments rattling and glistening about her person,
informed them, with voluble affability, of the whole
affair.

" My brother, M. le President, had arranged th«
marriage. Pelagie was twenty, and beautiful, as you
behold. It was time to establish her. 3Ion Dieu !
yes ; though my heart is lacerated to lose my angek
I consent. I conduct her to a ball, that she may be
Been by the young man whose parents desire that he
should espouse my infmt. He beholds her. He
says: 'Great heavens, I adore her! My fatlier, 1
consent.' He is presented to me ; we converse. She
regards him with the angelic modesty of a young
gh'l, 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 comea
for the marriage, and he will be permitted to address
her in pay presence. Ah, yes ! your customs are not

86 SB A WL-STRAPS.

as onrs, and to us seem of a deplorable freedom.
Pardon that I say it."

On ijiquiring how Pelagle regarded her future
lord, they ibund that she thought very little about
hiic ; but was absorbed in her trousseau^ which she
proudly displayed. To those accustomed to see and
hear of American outfits, with their la\'ish profusion
and extravagant elegance, poor little Pelagie's mod-
est stores were not at all imposing. Haifa dozen
pretty dresses from Paris ; several amazing hats, all
rosebuds, lace, and blue ribbon ; a good deal of em-
broidery ; and a few prophetic caps, — completed tho
outfit.

One treasure, however, she was never tired of dis-
Dlaying, — a gift from Jules, — a camels'-hair shawl,
m 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 manied
women alone could wear such, and she seemed to
think this right of more importance than any the
*vedding-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 marrymg a maq

BRITTANY. 37

whom tliey liacl only seen twice seemed homble;
anil 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 Pelagic 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 w^aiting for the grand event, the girla
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 hia
coff*ee, sighed gustily, and clutched his brow, regard-
less 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 ral-
lied 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

38 SHAWL-STRAPS.

the stony hearts of the blonde Americans, he would
air his entire wardrobe, appearing before them one
Jay in full Breton costume of white cloth, embroid-
ered in gay silks, buckled shoes, and hat adorned
with streaming ribbons and flowers. Quite Arcadian
was Gaston in this attire ; and very eflective on the
croquet ground, where sundry English families dis-
ported 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 sel-
dom did more than amble a mile or two, and a hard
trot of some six or eight miles reduced our Adonia
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 U

BRITTANY. 89

stiow himself in full dross 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 tho
bravery of glossy broadcloth, a lavish shirt -bosom,
miraculous tie, primrose gloves, varnished shots, and
curls and mustache anointed and perfumed in the
most exquisite style. He would bow and say " Bon
soir,''^ then stand to be admired, with the artless
satisfiction 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 w^hen 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 ])re vailed in the quiet
household. Madame C. and her handmaid, dear
old Marie, cackled and bustled like a pair of impor-
tant hens. Madame F., the widow Hved at the

40 SHAWL-STRAPS.

milliner's, so to speak, and had several dress re-
hearsals for her own satisfliction. Gaston mounted
guard over his sister, lest some enamoured man
should rend her from them ere her Jules could
secure the prize. And Pelagic placidly ate and
slept, kept her hair in crimping-pins from morning
till night, wore out her old clothes, and wiled 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: ^ 3Io?i 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 w^ept, and implored thein
not to tell Jules, lest he should discard her"

BRITTANY. 41

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 demeanor in
public.

"He has come! Look quick, girls!" cried La^
vinia, as a carriage stopped at the door, and a rush-
ing sound, as of many agitated skii'ts, was heard in
the hall. Three heads peeped from the window
of the blue parlor, and three pairs of carious eyes
were rewarded by a sight of the bridegro^^m, as he
alighted.

Such a little man! Such a fierce mustache!
Such a dignified strut ! And such an imposing
uniform as he wore! For Jules Gustavo Adolphe
Marie Clomadoc was a colonel in some regiment
Ftationed at Boulogne. Out he skipped ; in he
marched; and, peeping over the banisters, they saw
Lira salute Madame F. with a stately kiss on tlie
hand, then escort her up to her salon, bowing loftily

*2 SHAWL-STRAPS.

and twisting his tawny mustache 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 wuth ao
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 lan2:uao:e.

He escorted Madame down, sat between her and
Pelagic, 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 wooingr of the daufrhter
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
•miled, 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

BRITTANY. 4?

placidly gnawing bones and wiping up the gravy od
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 ofiered a
napkin to \n& fiancee with a French shrug and a ten-
der glance.

After dinner Madame F. beo:2:ed 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 persua-
sion 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 counte-
nances 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 kejDt 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

44 SUA WL-STRAPi*.

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 aUen
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 coun-
try, old Marie choked in her cofiee, while Madame
F. clapped her fat hands, and cried: "It is sub-
Ume ! "

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 w^as as good as a play, and every
glimpse they had of the little pair gave fresh food
for mirth. Every thing was so formal and polite, so
utterly unlike the fi-ee-and-easy customs of their
native land, that they were kept in alternate states
of indignation and amusement the whole tima

BRITTANY. 45

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 hia
sister, looking as if he was fast reaching a state of
jnind when he would give her away without a pang.
Many guests came and went, much kissing and bow-
ing, 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 ap-
peared, 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
iefl them but the kitchen. Madame C. was mach
hurt that she had not been asked to the wedding. It
seemed the least Madame F. could do after taking

16 SEA WL-STRAPS.

possession of the house, and turning its nghtfui
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 noth-
ing ; but Marie fumed and scolded fiercely, and pro-
posed that the neglected ones should all go away on
the wedding-day, and make a fete for themselvea
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 churchy
She looked as much like a fashion-plate as it was
possil)le 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 berufiled
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
jiword, so many orders that there was hardly room

BRITTANY. 47

for them on his little breast, and a cocked hat, with
a forest of feathers, in which he extinguished him-
self at intervals. How his tiny boots shone, his
tawny mustache bristled with importance, and his
golden epaulettes glittered as he shrugged and
pranced ! His honored 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 ghmpses of the splendors
below. Flocks of elegant ladies went sailing up the
narrow stairs. Gentlemen with orders, dandies
wonderfu' 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 shiill
cries from the infants, echoed through the once
peaceful halls. As Fran^oise said, "It was truly
divine."

48 SHAWL-STRAPS.

At eleven, every one trooped into thft carriages
again. How they ever got so many fuU-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 beaias reared,
the big coach lurched, and dismal wails arose. Out
burst the fierce little hero of the day, and the taij
friend followed by instalments.

BRITTANY. 49

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 hig
sword, tore his hair, and clutched his mustache 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 awk-
ward coachman.

During the flurry. Papa Clomadoc appeared to
Blumber tranquilly in the recesses of the carriage.
Mamma endeavored to soothe her boy with cries of
•* Tranquillize yourself, my cherished son. It is
nothing." " Come, then, and reassure papa." " Id-
4

50 SEA WL-STRA Pi>.

hale the odor of my vinaigrette. It will compose
your lacerated neiTcs, 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 Pelagic." "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
eio-hteen 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 board-
ing-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,
lalad, and wines; she also was in a new, spring hat

BRITTANY. 61

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 til^
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 bottom-
less.

The fiisky damsels explored ruins, ran races on
the hard beach, sniffed the salt breezes, and aston-
ished the natives by swarming up and down "preci-
pices," as they called the rocks.

That was a fatal day for Flabeau's boy (they
never knew his name) ; for, as if the w^edding 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 ;
rach gi'ins of joy as he gave when she spoke to him

62 SEAWI^STRAPS.

such feats of agility as he performed, leaping down
to gather flowers, or hurUng 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 aa
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 biue blouse.

I regret to say that "the infants," as Madame
0. always called Miss Livy's charges, behaved them-
selves with less decorum than could have been
wished. But the proud consciousness that they
never could be disposed of as Pelagic 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 aston-
ished 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,

BRITTANY. 68

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 con-
tinued to drone till they got home.

The house was a blaze of light when they arrived,
and Franyoise, 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 Pelagic had
wejDt 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 tre-
mendous effect; Gaston almost invisible behind a
banicade of bottles ; and Madame F., in violet
velvet, diamonds, plumes, and lace, more sleek and
buxom than ever. The ladies all talked at onct^

54 SHA WL-STRAPS.

and the gentlemen drank healths every five minatCB,
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 side-
board, and the plump shoulders of Madame F
were half out of the front window. "But it waa
genteel. Oh ! I assure you, yes," as Fran9oia8
said.

How long they kept it up the weary trio did not
wait to see; but retired to their beds, and slum-
bered 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 Pelagic had the joy of wearing her shawl.
For three days she astonished the natives by prom-
enading 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 Pelagic; but, as dear old Madame C. wrote to
them several times after they left, the little story

BRITTANY. 65

may be finished here, though the sequel did not
actufilly 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
80 solemn a bargain.

Wagers were laid that the fiery little colonel
would shoot some one in a jealous fit, or that
Pelagic 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 resem-
ble him. So little Pelagie's brief romance ended;
and one would fancy that the ex23eriences of that
year would make her quite content to remain
under mamma's wing, with no lord and master but

56 SHAWL-STRAPS,

the littxe son, to whom she was a verj tendei
mother.

Pleasant days those were in quaint old Dinan j
for spring's soft magic glorified earth and sky, and
a delicious sense of rest and freedom gave a charm
tc that quiet life. Legends of romance and chivalry
hung about the luins 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 caval-
cade on such occasions was an imposing spectacle.
Matilda being fond of horses likewise afiected don-
keys (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

BRITTANY. 67

size of a mouse, when the stately Mat in full array,
yellow parasol, long whip, camp-stool, and sketch-
book, sat bolt upriglit on her perch, driving in the
most approved manner.

The small beast, after much whipping, wouli
break into a trot, and go pattering over the hard,
white road, with liis 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 Lavirda, bundled up as usual,
and the amiable Amanda., both flushed with con-
stant pokings and thrasliings of their steed. A
venerable ass, so like an old whity-brown hair trunk
aB to his body, and Nick Bottom's mask as to his
head, that he Avas 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 liis 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 any thing, and the ladies

68 SHAWL-STRAPS.

resigned themselves to the ignominy of sitting still,
in the middle of the road, and letting other car-
nages drive over or round them.

On rare occasions the beast would bolt into the
diich as a vehicle drcAV 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 ardor 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

BRITTANY. 59

anprove my mind all the time as 'Mandy does, or
cuddle and doze like Livy. I've had experience
with } oung 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 logs."

Thus Matilda, regardless of the jeers of her fiiends,
«rhen they proposed having the small beast into the
ialon 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, Coet-
quen. La Belliere, Guingamp, or some other unpro-
nounceable but most charming spot, for a day of
sunshine and merry-making

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 gray hose, unfurled his Japanese umbrella, and,
with a pretty niece on either arm, disported him-
self 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.

60 SHA WL-STRAPS

The houses were nsually composed of one room,
where, near the open fire, and fixed against the wall,
Btands the bedstead or lit clos, of old oak, shut in hy
carved sliding panels, often hearing an inscription or
Bome 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 Ihj
family wardrobe, answering the double purpose of a
seat and a stej) by whicl? 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 haui' from the ceilinoj. The floor is of beaten
earth. One narrow window lets in the light.
There are no out-houses, and pigs and poultry mingle
fieely with the family.

The gardens are well kept, and produce quanti-
ties of fi'uit and vegetables. The chief food of the

BRITTANY. 61

poorer class is bread or porridge of buckwheat, with
cabbage soup, made by pouring hot water over cab*
bajre leaves and addinc: 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 s"ire
Bign of being married that year.

C2 :SHA WL-STRAPS.

Their veneration for healing-springs is vervgyeat;
and, though at times forbidden Ly the Churcli, ia
still felt. Pounded snails, worn in a bag on the
neck, is believed to be a cure for fever ; and a cer
tain holy bell rung over the head, a cure for liead-
ache. " If we believed, in that last remedy what a
ceaseless tingUng that bell would keep up iu
America," said Laviuia, when these facts w^ere men-
tioned to her.

In some towns they have, in the cemetery, a bone-
liouse 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 hke bu'd-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 the favorite 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, 9

BRITTANY, 03

jieasant wiiX pay twenty sous for a mass to St. Ives,
Bure 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 j^eople to work, and
their motto was " The Cross and the plougli, labor
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 fai-ms. One had
twenty piggeries, of three hundred pigs each, in it8
forests. The monks also reared sheep and horses,
uiid bred fish in their ponds.

Many were also brewers, weavers, carpenters, and
»o on. Evidently they lived up to their motto and

64 SEA WL-STRAPS.

labored quite as much as they prayed, and doubtlesi
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 favorite resting
place of the ladies. Especially when the week)}
liur was held and booths of all sorts were raised a1
one end. Here Amanda bought a remarkable jack-
knife, which w^ould cut notliing but her fingers:
Matilda sj^eculated 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 va-
rious 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
Utile place with Du Guesclin's heart buried by tho
iiide of his wife, was another haunt. The casllo,
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 centuiy. The view from the platfonn ot

BRITTANY. 65

tno keep was magnificent, extending to Mont Do-
and the distant sea.

I'he sunny promenade on the fosse, tliat goet
half round the town, was very charming, with tlie
old gray 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 Ranee, 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 odoroas
flowers and alive with bees. Workmen came to
these green places to eat the black bread and drink
the Ihin wine that was all their dinner. Invalids
strolled here after their baths at the little house in
llie rose-garden below. Pretty girls walked there
5

66 SEA WI^STRAPS.

m the twilight with long-haired lovers in knee
breeches and round hats. Nuns in their gray
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 odor.
All along the borders of the river waved the blos-
soming 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 Beauraanoirs
Btill 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
Rat all day on door-stones and by the wayside
Btiipping the long, white wands for basket-making.
Flax fields were blooming in the meadows, and

BRITTANY. 67

acres of buckwheat, with its rosy stems and snowy
blossoms, whitened the uplands with a fair prophecy
of bread for all.

So, garlanded about wiin early flowers and painted
in spring's softest, freshebt colors, 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.

IIL

FRANCE.

** /"^rivLS, I Imve bad a scintillation in tlie 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 impossi-
bility of getting the accumulated rubbish of three
months' travel into a couple of hnmense 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
adtled anxiously, —

"If you could suggest how I am to work thia
miracle, you will be a public benefactor."

" Jjchold the amendment I propose," beoan
Amanda, perching herself on one of the arks. "Wo
liave decided to travel slowly and comfortably,
through Fiance to Switzerland, stopping where wo
like, and staying as long as we please at any place

FRANCE. 69

we fancy, being as free as air, and having all the
world before us where to clioose, as it" were."

" The route you have laid out is a charming one,
and I don't see how you can improve it," said Lavi-
nia, Mho, though she was supposed to be the matron,
guide, and protector of the younger girls, was in
reality notliing but a dummy, used for Mrs. Grundy'a
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 o\
heaven, to save herself from the agonies of packing.

70 SHA WL-STRAPS.

** I shall never give up my pictures, nor mj
boots!" cried Matilda, gathering her idols to )ia
'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. TheD
with our travelling-bags and bundles, we can follow
at our leisure."

"'Tis well! 'tis well!" replied the chorus, and
ihey all returned to their packing, which was per-
fonned 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 ovei
the trunk to mark it for her own.

FRANCE. 71

Miss Lavinia packed and repacked four or five
times, forgetting needfuls, which, of course, were
always at the very bottom. At tlie fifth plunge into
the depths her patience gave out, and with a vow to
be a slave no longer to her treacherous memory, shs
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
labors 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 ; toilet-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 ej^istolary gush-
ings much stationery was consumed. A pistol, a
massive crust of bread, and an oval box containing
all the dainty appliances for the culture, preserva-
tion, and ornamentation of the finger-nails, made up
her store.

72 SHA WL-STRA PS.

Matilda's bundle consisted of sketch-books, a
trifle of h.'iberdiisliery, a curling-stick that was
always tumbling out at inopportune moments, ynrda
of blue '-ibbon, aud a camp-stool strapped outside in
coiiipan} with a Japanese umbrella, a gift from the
Btout doctor, destined to be cursed in many languages
by the unlia]^])}^ beings into whose backs, eyes, and
Blomachs it was poked before its wanderings ended.

Lavinia confined herself to a choice collection of
bottles and pill-boxes, fur boots, a gray cloud, and
several French novels, — the solace of wakeful nights.
A scarlet army blanket, with U. S. in b:g black
letters on it, enveloped her travelling medicine-chest,
and lent a cheerful ah* 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 coun-
tenances, our three errant damsels set forth one
bright June day, to wander through France at their
own sweet Avill. Xot a fear assailed them ; for all
men were civil, all women friendly, and the world
wore its sunniest aspect. Not a doubt perplexed

FRANCE. 73

Ihem ; for the gifted Amanda spoke many tongues,
understood all sorts of money, could grapple suc-
cessfully witli Murray and Bradsliaw, 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 them-
selves with the courtesy and discretion of gentle-
women.

How pleasant were the early sail down the Ranee
from Dinan to St. Malo, the comfortable breakflist in
the flowery little court of Hotel Franklin, and the
stroll afterward about the quaint okl town, looking
at the cliurches, buying fruit, and stoutly resisting
the temptations of antique jewelry displayed in the
dingy shops! Lavinia never forgave herself, how-
ever, for not securing a remarkable watch, and

74 SHA WL-STRAPS.

Amanda sighed months afterward for a Breton
collar and cross of charming antiquity and ugliness.

Matilda boldly planted her camp-stool, unfurled
hor 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
unsavoiy odors from the gutter, and the garrulous
crowd leaning over her shoulder, peering under her
hat-brim, and examininoj all her belong-ing^s with a
confidinsj freedom rather embarrnssins:.

"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 straw-
benies, and some remarkable cakes into the lunch-
basket.

" i^o : 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 ol

FRANCE. it

French answer admirably, by talking very loud and
fast, and saying, " Out, out, 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 1 can't stand it," said
Amanda, who had no romantic admiration for the
Great Unwashed.

"You think I can't do it? YoilaP^ and, rismg
suddenly to an unexpected height, Matilda waved
the umbrella like a baton, cried ^^Allez/" in a stem
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 satis-
faction.

" Come home and rest. It is so warm here I am
fairly melted," prayed Lavinia, who had been long-
ing for summer, and of course, was not suited when
she got it.

" Now, do remember one thing : don't let us be
giegarious. We never know who we may pick up

76 SEA WI^STRAPS.

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 court-yard 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, impor-
tant, and inquisitive ; the daughter, pretty, affected,
and over-dressed ; all on the lookout for adventures
and titles, fellow-countrymen to impress, and for-
eigners eager to get the better of them.

Seeing the peril from afar, Amanda buried her-
self in Murray, to read up the tomb of Chateau*

FRANCE. 77

briand, 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 tlie gray cloud, put her feet on the red bundle,
and fortified herself with a Turner's j^ill.

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 gargon^ 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
longue, fell into the snare, and grew more confiding
eA ery moment.

"She is telling the family history," whispered
Lavinia, in a tone of desj^air.

78 SHA WI^STRAPH.

"Now they are asking where we came from,"
added Amanda, casting do\vii her book in agony.

" Wink at her," sighed Lavinia.

"Call to her," groaned Amanda, as they heard
their treasured secret betrayed, and the enemy
clamoring for further information about this charm-
ing 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 meek-
ness.

" Now we've got her ! " croaked the Raven ; " foi
•he will have to learn French or hold her tongue."

" The language of the eye remains to me, and ]

FRANCE. 79

am a proficient in that, ma'am," said Mat, roused by
these efforts to deny her the right of free sj^eech.

*' You are welcome to it, dear," and Amanda
departed to buy tickets and despatch the trunks,
with secret misgivings that they wouki never be
found again.

" Xow we are fairly started, with no more weigh-
ing of luggage, fussing over checks, or packing of
traps to afflict us. What a heavenly sense of free-
dom it gives one, to have nothing but an indepen-
dent 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 fiom
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 win-
dow, declaring herself cured, and tried to sing
" Hail Columbia," in a voice like an asthmatic bag-
pipe.

Mat amused herself and her comrades by pickingf
up the different articles that kept tumbling down o»

80 SHA WL-STBAPS

her bead from her badly built bundle ; while Amanda
ecintillated to such an extent that the others laughed
themselves into hysterics, and lay exhausted, j^rone
ujion the seats.

They ate, drank, sung, gossiped, slept, read, and
revelled, till another passenger got in, when pro
priety 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 pic-
tm-e; 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, hisjjlump
hands folded over the dingy book, and the little
b^'nds lay peacefully on his breast.

lie was quite at their mercy now ; so the three

FRANCE. 81

women looked as mnch 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.

lie got out all too soon, was joined by several
other clerical youths, and disappeared with much
touching of big beavers, and waiting 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 qneens,
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 natU'
6

S'2 SEA WL-STRAPS.

ral curves of drooping branches, or the rise and fah
of some great fountain.

" We shall not see any thing finer than this, Fra
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
iny 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, CoBur 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-
Bized cup and saucer.

Another look at the cathedral in the early morn-
ing, and then away to Tours, which place they found
a big, clean, handsome city, all astir for the If^ete-
Dieu.

"We will stay over Sunday and see it," was the

FRANCE. 83

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 I
The evening red touched its gray 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 gi-eat steps below, swarmed with priests
and soldiers, gay strangers and black-robed nuns,
children and beoforars.

For an hour our pilgrims sat and studied the
wonderful fagade^ 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 honor of
the day. The streets were hung with garlands, gay
tapestries and banners, strewn with fresh boughs,

84 SHAWI^STRAPS.

and lined with people in festival army. 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 do"\vn 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 fol-
lowed, then the banners of patron saints were borne
by children. Saint Agnes and her lamb led a troop
of pretty little girls can-ying tall, white lilies, filling
the air with their sweetness. Mary, Our Mother,
was followed by many orphans with black rilbons
crossed over the young hearts that had lost so much.
Saint Martin led the charity boys in purple suits of
just the color of the mantle he was dividing with
the beggar on the banner. A pleasant emblem of
the charitable cloak that covers so many.

FRANCE. 85

Priests in full splendor i^aced 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 difticulty resisted a strong
desire to catch and kiss the pretty baby, she scan-
dalized her neighbors by laughing outright the next
minute. A particularly portly, pious-looking priest,
who was marching with superb dignity, and chant-
ing 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 tlien capped
the climax by taking a ^^inch of snuff with a sono-
rous satisfaction that convulsed the heretic.

The afternoon was spent in the church, wandering
to and fro, each alone ;?cudy and enjoy in her ovn
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 facta
in a j)roper and decorous manner, while Lavinia
went UD and down, finding for herself little pictui'es

86 SHA WL-STRAPS.

not painted by hands, and reading histories more
interesting to her than those of saints and martyrs.

In one dim chai^el, with a single candle lighting
up the divine sorrow of the Mater Dolorosa, knelt a
w Oman 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 beautified by the tenderness of mother-love. In
a third chapel a pale, wasted, old man sat propped
m 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 con-
fessional 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. Fran-
cis, 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 impos-

FRANCE. 87

Bible 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 imjiious to try," said Matilda,
quite exhausted by something deeper than pleas-
ure.

"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 inquiries 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 agre^
ment, but before the cathedral, which all had decided
not to revisit on any account.

Matilda was there first, and as each of the otners
came stealing round the corner, she greeted xnenj

88 SHA WL-STRAPSS.

with a laugh, in which all joined after the first sur-
prise was over.

" I told you it would bewitch us," said Amanda ;
and then all took a farewell look, which lasted so
long they had to rush back to the hotel in most
unseeml} 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 3'ears. 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-d-inanger was across
a court, and eveiy dish came from a kitchen round
the corner. The gar^on a beaming, ubiquitous crea-
ture, trotted perpetually, diving down steps, darting
into dark corners, or skipping up ladders, producing

FRANCE. 89

needfuls from most unexpected places. The bread
came from the stable, soup from the cellar, coifee
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
^omen liked it.

" I'm not so sure that the romance is all it looks.
We should be in a sweet quandary if any thing hap-
pened 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 do\¥ n j

90 SHAWL-STRAPS.

and frequently the eye of the tabby-loving spinster
was gladdened by the touchiDg spectacle of a blonde
riauima 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 Hugue-
nots 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

FRANCE. 91

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 honors 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 sur-
veyed 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 gray 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 morn-
ing ; so, ladies, I beg that you will be ready punc-
tually," was the command issued by Amanda, as
they went to their rooms, after a festive dinner of

92 SHAWL-STRAPS.

what she called "earthworms and cacti," being
fond of stewed brams, baked eels, and thistles and
pigweed choj^ped 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 court-yard, 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 dis-
turbed 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
gargon 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 stufl*y little bed, whose
orange curtains filled her dreams with volcanic
eruptions and conflagrations of the moist lurid
description.

At seven, an open carriage with a stout pair of

FRANCE. 93

horses and a sleepy driver, rolled out of the (:o\ii*t«
yard of the Lion d'Or. Within it sat three ladies,
who gazed at one another with cheerful counte-
nances, and surveyed the world with an air of bland
content, beautiful to behold.

"I am fauly faint with happiness," sighed Matilda,
as they drove through fields scarlet with poppies,
starred with daisies, or yellow with buttercups, while
birds piped gayly, 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 ; wind mills
whirling on the distant hill-tops; vineyards full of

94 SEA WL^STRAPb

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 tlie
pilgrims, jolly boys shouted at them from the cherry-
trees, and Uttle 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
splendor.

The great picture-gallery was the chief attraction ;
and beginning with Diane herself — a tall, simpeiing
baggage, with a bow, hounds, crescent, and a blue
gash for drnpery — they were led through a rapid
review of all sorts of worthies and unworthies, relics
and rubbish, without end. Portraits are alwayi

FRANCE. 95

interesting. Even Lavinia, who "had no soul for
Alt," as Mat said, looked with real j^leasure at a bas-
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 s\m
certainly was a relief to the eye, wearied with peri-
wigged 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 spoilt 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
Band's g7'andmother, who ownbd the place in th«

96 SEA WL-STRAPS.

time of the Revolution, it was spared out of respect
to lier, and is still a charming relic of the past.

The ladies went down the mossy steps, leading
fiom the gallery to the further shore, and, lying
ander the oaks, wiled away the noon-time by re-pco-
pling 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 'ike
a vision of departed splendor, love, and romance.

Having seen every thing, and bought photographs
ad lihiticni of the wooden-faced lisper, who cheated
awfully, the pilgrims drove away, satiated with
relics, royalty, and '■'• regardezP

Another night in the stony-hearted, orange-colored
rooms, with the sleepless gargon sweeping and mur-
muring outside like a Banshee, while the hens
roosted sociably in the gallery, the horses seemed
to b champing directly under the bed, and the dead
Huguenots bum])ing down ujion the roof -from the
castle-walls. Another curious meal waftCvl from the
bowels of the earth and cooled by all the airs that
blow, — then the shawl-straps were girded anew, chfl

FRANCE. 97

carriage (a Lalf-grown omnibus with the jaundice)
mounted, the forewell hows and adieux received, and
forth rumbled the duchesses en route for Blois.

" My heart is rent at leaving that lovely chateau^
Baid Mat, as they crossed the bridge.

" I mourn the earth-worms, the cacti, and the tire-
less '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 thera

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 llowcrs,

98 SHA WL-STRAPS.

phone everywhere in a maze of scarlet and gold^
brown and silver, purple and white.

Here the historical Amanda revelled, ar.d quenched
the meek okl guide with a burst of information
which caused him to stare humbly at "the mad
English."

" Jiegardez, my dears, the chamber and oratory of
Calierine de Medicis, who here plotted the death
of the Due de Guise. This is the cabinet of her son,
Henri IIT., where he gave the daggers to the gentle-
men who were to rid him of his enemy, the hero of
the barricades. Tliis is the Salle des Gardes, where
Guise was leaning on the chimney-piece when sum-
moned to the king. This is the little room at the
entrance of which he was set upon in the act of lift-
ing the drapery, and stabbed with forty wounds."

" Ow ! how horrid ! " gasped Matilda, staring
about as if she saw the sanguinary gentlemen
approaching.

" So interesting ! Do go on ! " cried La^dnia, who
was fond of woe, and enjoyed horrors.

"This is the liall 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 hia

FRANCE 99

mouth. " Here the king came to look iij Dn the
corpse of the once mighty Henri le BaLafre, and
sinirned 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 XIH.

" 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 iniqui-
ties to wdiich she had been listening, till the hair
stood erect upon her innocent head.

The Salle des Etats was being prepared for the
tiial 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 relio
worth seeing; but the parched pilgiims found the

100 ^"^fi^^ WL~S TRAPS.

little pots of clotted cream quite as interesting, and
ninch more refreshing, when they were served up at
lunch (the pots, not the pilgrims), each covered with
a fresh vine-leaf, and delicately flavored with butter-
cui^s and clover.

Amanda won the flivor of tl:e stately gargon 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 cyreme cle St. Gervats 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
j^cat gargon was deeply touched, and it was with
difiiculty that they finally escaped from his atten-
tions.

On being presented with a cast-ofl* camp-stool,
and a pair of old boots to dispose of, he instantly
appropriated them as graceful souvenirs, and clasp-
ing his hands, declared with effusion that he would
Beat his infmt upon the so-useful stool, and offer the

FRANCE. 101

ohamiing boots to Madame, my wife, who would
weep for joy at tliis touching tableau.

With this melodramatic valedictory, he suffered
the guests to depm-t, 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 tho
Bun glared fiercely on his uncovered head.

"I shall write an article on gargons wh?n I gel
home," said Lavinia, who was always planning great
works and never executing them. " AV^e 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 sleevea
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
Ranee. How picturesque and polite he was, to be
Bure, as he kept picking up our beer-bottles when

102 SHAWL-STRAPS,

they rolled about the deck ! " put in Mat, who Iiad
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 in-
sisted 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 gargon 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 Cuj)id in a blue blouse."

"I will do justice to every one," and Laviniatook
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,

FRANCE. lOS

and we must make the most of our time aud money.'*

said Amanda ;

*For, thougl. on pleasure she was bent,
She had a frugal miucl."

Forth they went, as soon as dinner was over, ami
found the waters all abroad also ; for every man was
playing away with a hose, every woman scrubbing
her door-steps, and the children gayly playing leap-
frog in the puddles.

"Nasty, damp place," croaked the Raven, obscui-
ing her disgusted countenance behind the inevitable
gray 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 jewellers
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 tneii

104 SHA WL-STRAPS.

eyes simultaneously, and, to Mat's amazement, both
plunged into the little shop, clamoring 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 bnt impov-
erished 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 ar-
ranged ?

Ah, no! Madame is forced to depart early, to
return no more.

3Ion 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
Khe utmost; therefore, '■'■ Merci^^^ and ^'' Bonjour.^^

"Hold! Where shall it be sent?" cries the

FRANCE. 106

man, giving in, but not confessing it, with awkward
frankness.

A thousand thanks ! Madame will pay for it at
once; and laying down the mone\, 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 o^reat fun," answered Amanda, flashinsf her
ring with satisfaction after the skirmish. " Will
Madame kindl}' direct me to the house of Jacques
Coeur?" she added, addressing an old woman clat-
tering b}' in sabots.

" Allez toujours a droit en vous appu3*ant sur la
gauche," replied the native, beaming and bowing till
the streamers of her cap waved in the wind.

The3' followed these directions, but failed to find
the place, and applied to another old woman eating
soup on her door-step.

" Suivez le cliemin droit en tombant a gauche,"
was the replv, with a wave of the spoon to all the
points of the compass.

"• Great heavens, what a language ! " cried Lavinia,
who had been vainlj' endeavoring to " support " her-

1 06 SHA WL-STRAPS.

self, as she " fell " in every direction over and into
the full gutters.

The house was found at last, an ancient, mysleii-
ous place, with a very curious window, carved to
look as if the shutters were half ojien, and froiu
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 dis-
appeared, 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 sanc-
tuary the appearance of a gay drawing-room, and
the profone 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
frjm the hidden choir suddenly soared up like a
lark, singing so wonderfully that a great stillnesi

FRANCE 107

feL on tlie 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 Avere play-
ing 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. Aa
the choir-boys came racing downstairs 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-colored 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 w^hich 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

108 SHAWL-^TRAPii.

while the siramering and sipping went on. Matilda
sketched the noble commander as she lay upon the
eofa, with her Egyptian profile in fine relief, and her
aiistocratic red slippers gracefully visible. A large
gray cat of a social turn joined the party, and added
much to the domesticity of the scene by sitting on
tlie hearth in a cosey 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
Capulcts 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
lier 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
ns now?" said Mat, proudly examining ten pointed
pink nails at the tips of her long fingers.

" Peojde told us we should get demoralized if we
came abroad, and this is the first step on the down-

FRANCE. 101^

ward 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 produce<i
these inspired stanzas.

THE DOWNWARD KG AD,

Two Yankee maids of simple mien.

And earnest, high endeavor,
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 I

Oh, for some simple food !
These horrid, greasy, unknown things.

How can you think them good 1 "
Thus to Amanda did they say.

An uncomplaining maid,

110 SHA WL-STRAPS.

Who ate in peace and answered not

Until one day they said, —
*' How can you eat this garbage vile

Against all nature's laws 1
How can you cut your nails in pointa.

Until they loolc 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

Thai prophecy fulfilled ;
The ardor 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 chopp«d-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 i "

FRANCE. 11 1

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 sliort fatal month,

A change like this appears.
Oh, what will be the net result

When they have stayed for years ?

Tremendous applause greeted this masterly effort,
aud 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 sugges-
tion, 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
Blamming the furniture about, this restless bird kept
appearing first at one cell door with a conundrum,
*^^hen at the other with a joke, or insisted on telling

112 SEA WL-STRAPS

funny stories in her den, till the exhausted victima
implored her to take an oiDium pill and subside
before they became furious. She obeyed, and aftei
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, —

FRANCE. 113

« Come out, or I'll fire ! "

"MioDio! is it only you?" answered a familiai
voice, as Amanda, shrouded in a water-proof, sprang
up and lit a match.

" W hat 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-
colored saint upon the wall. Yet the rustling and
rasping went on, and with one impulse the defenders
•yi sleeping innocence made for the table in the
comer.

1 14 SHA WL-S TRA PS.

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 wrathfuUy demanded what the matter was.

They told her with eloquent brevity, but instead
of praising their prowess, and thanking them with
fervor, 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.

FRANCE. 115

" 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
skij^ping into Lavinia's arms, feeling, with the in-
stinct 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 impiove her
mind.

So Lavinia gave her a free translation which

116 SHA WL-STRAPS

convulsed Amanda behind her paper. Coming to
this passage, "Plusiers faits graves sont anives,"
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, 1
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 ? " munnured Amanda, faint with suppressed
laughter.

" What are you muttering about?" asked Granny,
shai-ply.

"Trying to recall those fine lines m Wilhelm
Meister ; don't you remember ? Wer nie sein Brod

FRANCE. 117

mit Thranen ass,' " replied Amanda, polite even at
the last gasp.

" I read my Goethe in decent English, and don't
know any thing about training asses," returned
Lavinia, severely.

That was too much! Amanda cast her papal
down, and had her laugh out, as the only means of
eaving herself from suffocation. The others gazed
upon her in blank amazement, till she found breath
enough to enlighten them, when such peals of mer-
riment arose, that the guard popped his head in W
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 appar-
ently 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 hia

118 SHA WL-STRAPS.

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 oppo-
site. 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
u-repressible 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
w^ay," returned Matilda, whose blond curls had evi«
dently met with the great creature's api^roval.

A slight pucker about the Comte's lips caused a
thrill of horror to pei-vade the ladies, as Amanda
murmured under her breath, —

FRANCE- 119

* 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 i^rudent 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 h«
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 appall her with awful
fi'owns; 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 m
my shawl, and tell him she is mad," resolved Lav-
inia, whose spinster soul was always scandalized at
the faintest approach to a flirtation.

" If the man does speak English, Mat will have it

120 SHAWL-STRAPS.

all her own way," thought Amanda, remtmbtring
the vow imposed upon the reckless gh'l.

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
though^ her the lady of the party (oAving 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 hunt^
ing, his e>'tate, and finished by inviting her and her
party to call and \dew his chateau, if they ever
paused a^ the town, which had the honor of being
his suo^mor residence. Mat responded to all these
cou/te-ies with confiding sweetness, and when at
lengVj he was desolated at being obliged to teai
UiwMelf away, she

" Gave sigh for sigh,"

FRANCE. 121

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 fiices 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 ardor 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 Bern. 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

122 SHA WL-STRAPS.

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 resig-
nation, 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 them-
selves 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 vege-
tables. Lavinia counted three tomatoes, a bunch oi
giapes, poppies and pansies, wheat ears and black-
berry-vines, a red, red rose, and one small lettuce,
with glass dewdrops and green grubs lavishly

FRANCE. 123

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, wheelbarrows, 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 charm-
ingly arranged ? "

"It is simply awful," said Mat, aghast at tbff
prospect.

Iii4 SHAWL-STRAPS.

"Settle it as you like, dear, only Vm afraid 1
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 anotLei
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, suffer-
ing Madame Timst 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 par-
ties palled, or best gowns were not get-at-able.

FRANCE. 125

While Amanda conferred with the hostess among
the cabbages, Mat discovered that the picturesque
wliite cattle in the field close by were extremely
fierce and unsocial ; that there was no house in
3,ght, and the venerable horse and shay would never
sustain many tri]33 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 mtro-
duce 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 arbor, 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 mouldei
among the cabbages of Moulins.

1 26 SHA WL -S TRAPS.

" Now we return to civilization, good clothes, and
Christian food," said Lavinia, as they surveyed their
fine rooms at the Grand Hotel, Lyons.

"Likewise letters and luggage," added Amand.'i,
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
fi'om 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.

FRANCE 127

"I, also," said Mat, opening her bundle for the
one hundredth and last time.

" You do me proud ; I humbly thank you," and
with a superb curtsy thv c ommander-in-chief mod-
natly retired behind the toweL

SWITZERLAND.

** "\ ^Y 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 iiTeverent
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 rumor now predicts, Geneva will
be crammed with people whose plans, like ours, are
upset ; therefore we had better skip across the laRe,
and secure a comfortable place for oursehc;w at
Yevey or Montreux, for we shall probably h» iv to
winter there."

SWITZERLAND. 129

** Hear, hear ! we will clo it, and if Italy doesn't
get over her little revolution in time for us to go to
Home, 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
60 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 Yevey, so we are sure of getting
in somewhere. Pack at once, and let us flee," re-
turned Lavinia, w^ho, having bought a watch, a ring,
and a lucket, 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 about the neck, which they
9

130 SHA WL-STRAP^.

decorated with ribbons and proudly displayed to the
disgusted traveller.

Here in the rambling old Hotel des Bains, with
its balconies, gardens, and queer little i-ooms,
the wanderers reposed for a time. A Polish
countess, with her lover, daughter, and governess,
conferred distinction upon the house. An old Hun-
garian count, who labored 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 D'Israeli'a
novels under the other, sj^ent her shining hours wan-
dering from balcony to garden, enjoying the heat,
which gave her a short respite from her woes.

SWITZERLAND. 131

While here Matilda, in company with a kindred
eoul, made the ascent of Mount St. Bernard with
the pleasing accompaniments of wind, rain, thunder,
and lightning. But the irrepressible Ajuericans
went on in spite of warnings fi'om moie j^i'^deut
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 hos-
pitable welcome from the handsome monk who does
the honors there. Being j)rovided with dry gar-
ments, and having much fun over the tall Matilda
draped in skirts of many colors 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 with'
out, with thrilling tales of the travellers they had
saved, the wild adventures they had knowp in

132 SHAWL-STRAPS.

the dreadflil 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 union of the romantio
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

ISWITZERLAND. 133

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, tlie 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 engra\dng 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-accom-
plished head-waiter, dropped his nnpkin, 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 peiision that
ever received the weary traveller.

Standing in its own pretty grounds, and lookmg
out upon the lake. Pension Paradis deserves ita
name. Clean and cosey within, a good table, a

134 SHA WL-STRAPS.

kindly hostess, and the jolliest old host ever seen
what more could the human heart desire ?

Vevey was swarming with refugees. Don Car-
los, or the Duke de Madrid, as he was called, was
there with his Duchess and court, plotting heav*in
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, mar-
quises, 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 occa-
sion 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 cf his room at
all hours ?

SWITZERLAND. 135

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,
«i:cept that little Mirandola had a title, and might
be sent back to Spain any day to lose his life or Ub-
erty in some rash plot, which circumstance made
the black-eyed boy doubly interesting to the free-
bo:Ti 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 dig-
nity.

A bashful Russian, who wore remarkably fine
broadcloth and had perfect manners, was likewise
received into the good graces of the ladies, wh:)
taught Lim English, called him " the Baron " m

136 SHA WL-STRAPS.

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 Antoi-
nette ; she dressed in white with violet ribbons, and
wore much ancient jew^elry. A loud-voiced, ener-
getic woman, who bewailed the sack of her house at
Lyons, scolded her children, and cursed the Ger-
mans with equal volubility and spirit. When silent
she was the picture of a patrician beauty; but,
alas ! her voice destroyed the charm, and her man-
ners— great heavens, what things that woman
did! Picking her pearly teeth with a hair-fin, and
knocking her darlings into their chairs with one
Bweep of her elbow when they annoyed her at

>ij V^ITZERLAND. 137

table, were the least of the horrors she perpe-
trated.

But she talked well, devoted herself to her family,
and took misfortune bravely ; so much may be par-
doned her.

Her infants were only remarkable for their ugli-
ness and curious costumes. The little girl usually
wore soiled silk gowns, and had her hair tied up
with bits of twdne. The boy appeared in a suit of
yellow calico spotted with black, looking very much
ike 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 observ-
ing Lavinia, who could never discover whether it

138 SEA WI^STRAPS.

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 tlie niglit, imagining the old soul jilacidly slum-
bering with the perennial asters encircling her aged
hrcw 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 j^retty but
for her affectation and sentimentality. The girl
was engaged to a fierce, dissipated little Russian,
who presented her with a big bouquet every morn-
ing, 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 Mademoi
Belle for her money, and the weak Mamma was full
of satislaction 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 husbancl

SWITZERLAND. 139

who had " tyrant " written in every line of his had,
hlasG little flice 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 coun*
tryman of our three, — a jocund youth fresh from
Algiers with relics, adventures, and tales that utterly
eclipsed the Arabian Nights. Festive times fol-
lowed, for the " Peri " (the pet name of aforesaid
youth) gave them the fruits of his long wander-
ings, sung whole operas heard in Paris, danced bal-
lets 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 d, la troubadour.

Sounding the lungs of a veiled princess in Morocco
was the least of his adventures, and the treasures ho

140 SB A WL-STRAPb.

had collected supplied Lavinia with materials foi
unlimited romances: cuff-buttons made from bits
of marble picked up among the ruins of Carthage ;
diimond crescents and ear-rings bought in Toledo,
«o 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 crosa
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 ladiea
rumbled away in the coupe of a diligence to Brieg.

SWITZERLAND 141

A lovely day's journey up the valley of the Rhone,
ond 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 clamoring for tickets, scoldmg 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 ia
boond to see us over these snow-banks, so * trust in

142 SHAWL-STRAPS.

Pro^'idence 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, Avhile
the carrier's little cart with one brought up the rear.
But stil'. 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 over-
take 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 every thing^'' cried Matilda, prancing about on
the front seat in a chaos of wraps, books, bottles,
and lunch-baskets.

SWITZERLAND. 143

" Of course it does, and when there is any thing
to see we will see it. It is dark and cold now, so
we'd better all go to sleep again."

"Willi 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 climb-
ing 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 dazzlini? through a
great gorge, startling them with the splendor it
brought.

144 SHA WL-S TRAPS.

Down went the carriage-top, and standing bolt up-
right, three pairs of eager eyes drank in the grand-
eur and the beauty that makes the crossing of the
Sirnplon 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
rea, and all around great glaciers glittering in the
sunshine, awful gorges with torrents thundering
from the heights above, relics of landslides 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 win-
dows over which poured waterfills from the treach-
erous 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 carriasre went

SWITZERLAND. 145

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 wer«
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,
hke 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.
10

146 SEA WL-STRAPS.

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 liills. So the enthu-
siasts picked their chicken bones, sipped their wine,
and felt less exhausted and liysterical. A good
laugh over the carrier's little boy, who sniffed the
banquet afar off, and came running to offer a hand-
ful 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
bad 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 Yalley of
Goudo for dessert, no one cared for other food. Fol-

SWITZERLAND. 147

lowing the wild stream that had worn its way
between the immense cliiFs, they drove rapidly down
toward Italy, feeling that this was a lit 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 jjassports were
demanded, a very careless search of luggage, and it
was all over. So Matilda threw off lier 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

148 SHAWL-:STRAPS,

diliorences, and cjreat was the fiis« till Amanda waa
invited up aloft by a friendly gentleman who had a
perch behind, large enough for two. There they
discussed theology and politics to Iheir hearts' con-
tent, and at parting the wortliy 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 Dome
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.

SWITZERLAND, 140

** I feel a richer, better woman for it, and don't
believe I shall ever see any thing more satisfactory
if I stay in Italy ten years," resj^onded Lavinia,
wrapping the red armyA .uket

" Like a martial oL-ak around her.'

"Wait till the spell of Rome is upon yon, 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," per-
sisted 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
kn'^t as if to settle the matter.

V.

ITALY.

OLEEP as deep, dreamless, and refresliing as if
the beneficent spirit of Carlo Borroraeo still
iiaunted 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. Every one knows what a little
Paradise has been made to blossom on that rock ; so
raptures over the flowers, the marbles, the panniers
ot 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, catch-
ing 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 insist-
ing on sitting up with the driver instead of sharing
the coupe with their decorous duenna. " We must

ITALY. 151

Bee tlie lovely views and the moonlight," said
Amanda, and up she went.

" To sii 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, find-
ing 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 w^as ! First, the
soft twilight wrapping every thing in mysterious
shadow, and then the sl:w uprising of a glorious full
moon, touching the commonest object with its mag-
ical 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
ciimbing up woody hills, or dashing down steep

152 SHAWL-STRAPS.

roads that wound so sharply round corners, it was a
wonder the airy passengers did not fly ofl* 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
ihatter, 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 tas-
sels 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 en-
joyed himself; for Amanda aired her Italian and
asked many questions. Matilda invited him to per-
form 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

ITALY. 153

the brigand that he lost his head. However, it was
all so deliglitful that even Granny felt the charm,
and w\as sure thai if they did uj)set 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
appro])riate manner.

Nothing happened, fortunately, and by nine
o'clock they w^ere safely at Lugano, and, tearing
themselves from the dear brigand, were taken pos-
session 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 w\alls, and
yellow bed covers, — all so gay it w\as like sleej^ing
in a rainbow.

As if another lovely lake under the windows, and
moonlight ad libitum^ w^as 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 openinir a closet

154 SEA WI^STRAPS.

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 *var-
blers, but see them when the cuitain was down.
What a thing it was to see Donna Anna do up her
back hair, Don Giovanni dance a jig, the 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 w'ent
to the opera wrapped in a yellovv bedquilt ?

On the morrow a few pictures of Luini before
breakfast, and then more sailing over lakes, and
raoie driving in festive diligences to Menaggio,
wliCre a boat like a market wagon without wheals
bore them genteelly to Cadenabbia, and a week of
repose on the banks of Lago Como.

ITALY. 155

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 h6tels, one villa, no road but the
lake, and an insinuating boatman with one eye Avho
lay in wait among the willows, and popped out to
grab a passenger when any one 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-colored and coarse. Don't believe
in it a bit. Jolly old books, but couldn't touch 'enio
Fine window to Dante. Saw cathedral illuminated ;
very theatrical, and much howling of people over the
deputies fi'om Rome. Don't know why they illumi-

156 kSHa wl-straps.

n:!ti*d or why they howled ; didn't ask. Men here
handsome, but rude. Women wear veils and no
bonnets, — fat and ngly. Gloves very good. Arch
cf Peace. — More peace and less arch would be bet-
ter for Italy.

"Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin. — StijBf and
stupid. Can't like Kaphael. Dear, pious, simple,
old Fi-a Angelico suits me better.

"To the Public Garden w^ith A.; saw a black
ostrich wdth 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,
parlor, 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 w^ell 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 Cor-

ITALY. 157

reggio. All heaven upsidedown ; fat angels turn-
ing 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, A nth rosy children peeping through the lat*
tice, very charming. Madonna della Scodella —
the boy Christ very beautiful. The old Farnese
Theatre most interesting; got a scrap of canvaa
fi-om 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
afterward. St. Jerome and the infant Christ, by
Elisabeth 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 Veims,
or Titian's famous hussy hanging over it Like his

168 SHA WL-STRAPS.

portraits much. Busts of Romau emperors greal
fun. Such bad heads! The JuHas, Faustinas, and
Agrippinas, with hair dressed Uke a big spongo
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 Uke 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 chil-
dren, or singing and piping with devout energy.

" Relics of Savonarola, — his cell, bust, beads, hair.

iTAiy. 159

cloth shirt, and a bit of wood fiom the pile on
wliich 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 win-
dows, 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
aw^ay, 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,**

160 SUA WL-STRAPS.

began Lavinia, as they went stumbling through the
mud and confusion of a big, unfinished station on
llicir arrival at the eternal city.

" People of sense don't judge a place at ten o'clock
(.f 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 car-
riage and drove to Piazza di Spagna.

"I see a divine fountain! A splendid palace!
Now it's a statue of some sort! 1 do believe that
daik figure was a monk! I know I shall like li in
spile of every thing," cried Matilda excitedly, r *tten-
in'' her nose ao;ainst 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
lo 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
sifiter wrapped in a dressing-gown, w^ith dishevelled

ITALY. 161

hair, staring out of the window, and murmuring;
incoherently, —

" Spanish Steps, that's where the models sit. Pro-
paganda, 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 tho
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 witb

UEUsual energy.

11

162 SHAWL-STRAPS.

" You will have to get used to ram 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 ti'araontana, the sirocco, and
all the other charming features of an Italian winter.
That nothing might be wanting, a nice little inunda-
tion was got up for their benefit, December 28th.

Sitting peacefully at breakflist 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 startled 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
fiiends were comforted to observe no signs of water,

ITALY. lt)3

except that half frozen in the basm of the fountain
above which leaned their fxvorite old Triton, with
an icicle on the end of his nose.

"I must go and attend to this. The y>^ov will
suffer ; we may be able to lielp," 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, try-
ing to rescue their property.

"Our dresses, our beautiful new dresses, where
are they now ! " wailed the girls, surveying Maz-
zoni's grand store, with w^ater up to the balcony,
where many milliners wrung their hands, lament-
ing.

The Piazza del Popolo was a lake, with the four
stone lions just visible, and still spouting water,
though it t^ras a drug in the market. In at the ^pen

164 SHAWL-STRAPS

gate rolled a muddy stream, bearing hay-stacks,
brusliwood, and drowned animals along the Corso.
Peoj^le stood on their balconies wondering what
they should do, many breakfostless ; for how could
the trattoria boys safely waft their coffee-pots across
ciuch 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 gal-
lantly 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)
tbac the snuffy pnests.

ITALY. 165

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 ;
fur 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, push-
ing 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 win-
dows, crying, " Bread ! bread ! " and their wants
could not be supplied in spite of tlie care of the
city authorities. One old woman who had lost
every thing 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 vio-
lent was the flood. The heavy rains and warm
winds melted the snow on the mountains, and

166 SB A WL-STRAPS.

Bwelled the river till it rose higher than at any
time since 1805.

Many strangers who came to Rome for the Christ-
mas holidays sat in their fine apartments, without
food, fire, light, or company till taken olF 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 pro^ isions for several days.
But if the flood lasts we shall come to w^ant ; 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 Rosj)igliosi 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

ITALY. 167

Biiifling at the famous statue, and T\^sl]iiig 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,"
eaid 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 burn-
ing till morning. Thieves abounded, and the ladies
prepared their anus, 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

168 SHA WI^S TRAPS.

about midnight. Mat wailed for a eubmerge.i
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 win-
dows 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 Jan-
uary ; but the kind soul could not wait, and, as soon
as the road w^as passable, he came with 300,000
francs in his hands to see what he could do for hi
poor Ivomans. He arrived at 4 a.si., and though
unexpected the news flew through the city, and a
crowd turned out with torches to escort him to the
Quirinal.

ITALY. 1611

Again did the explosive Pin a burst in upon her
laistrcsses 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 tit)uble. The
handsome damsel was a spectacle herself, so dra-
matic 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 fiashing, and her
mellow voice trembling, while she talked regardless
of t\iQ polenta going to destruction in the frying-pan.

On went the bonnets, -^ut 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 ofiicials, 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 CoUonnas glad-
dened plebeian eyes, and the people cheered every
thing, from the Commander-in-Chief to sora ibodyV
b'leakfast, borne through the crowd by a stfitely

170 SEA WL-S TRAPS.

"Jeames" (n livery, who graciously acknowledged
the homage.

For one mortal hour our ladies stood in a peltmg
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
ihepadr07ia wnspapalifio)^ and supporting it by two
litt^le American flags, the stars and stripes of which
much perplexed the boys and donkeys, disporting
themselves in the Piazza Barberini.

But the excitement Avas 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 \\dth all their hearts and voices^
ae well they might, for it certainly was a sight to

ITALY. 171

Bee. 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 | opulace clamored so for
another sight of " II Re " that the Pope's best velvet
hangings were hastily spread, and Victor Emmanuel
came out and bowed to his people, " who stood or
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 splendor, he would not have
the fine apartments prepared for him, but chose a
plain room, sapng, " Keep the finery for my son if
you like : I prefer this."

He drove through the Ghetto, and all the deso-
lated 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 hicn

1 72 SUA WL-STRAPS.

off: ladies with carriages full of flowers, troops of
soldiers, and thr")ngs of poor people blessing him
like a saint; for this kingly sympathy of his had wou
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 Em-
manuel, 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 ^escos, and in-
jurmg their optic nerves poring over pictures so
old that often nothing was visible but a mahogany-
colored 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.
'J'hey picnicked in the tomb of Caecelia Metella, flirted
in the palace of the Cassars, — not in the classical
manner, however, — got cold by moonlight in the
Colosseum, and went sketching in the Baths of Car-
Bcalla, which last amusement generally ended in the

ITALY. 173

gentlemen and ladies drawing each other, and return-
ing delighted with the study of art in " dear Rome."

They went to fancy parties where artists got
themselves up like their own statues and picturesr
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
nobler 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 saloriy introduced the
Potato Pantomime, had charades, and enacted the im-
mortal Jarley's waxworks on one of the Seven Hills.

A true Yankee breakfast of fishballs, johnny-cake,
and dip toast, was given in their honor, and its
delights much enhanced by its being eaten in a
lovely room with reeds and rushes on the pale-green
wallsj shell-shaped chairs, and coral muTor-frames.
What a thing it was to consume those familial

It4 SffAWL-STRAPS.

viandg in a famous palace, with Guide's Cenci down-
stairs, a great sculptor next door, three lovely boya
as waiters, and " Titian T. " to head the feast, and
follow it up with dates from the Nile, and 'Egyptmn
sketches that caused the company to vote a speedy
adjournment to the land " of corkendiils " and pyra
mids.

These and many other joys they tasted, and when
all else palled upon them they drove on the Cam-
pagna 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 weai'led 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 splendor, dirt
and deviltry, 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 pag-
eants, feteSf and ceremonies; but this republican

ITALY 175

spinster preferred to see Rome guarded by her own
troops, and governed by her own King, who ordered
streets to be cleaned, fountanis filled, schools opened,
and all good institutions made possible, rather than
any amount of Papal purple covering poverty, igno-
rance, and superstition. Better than the sight of
all the red coaches that ever rumbled was the spec-
tacle 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 smging once forbidden songs of liberty in
the streets of Rome.

These sfT^.timents, and others equally unfashion-
able, were only breathed into the ear of sister Ma-
tilda when the two retired to the Campagna to
confide to one &Qother the secrets of their souls ;
a process necessary about once a week; for, after
visiting studios, going to parties, and telling polite
fibs about every thing they saw, it was impossible to
exist without finding a vent of some sort. Once
cut among the aqueducts, Matilda could freely own
that she tnought genius a rare article in the studios
where she expected to learn so much ; and Lavinia

1 76 SRA WL-STRAPS.

could make the awful avowal that parties at whicb
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 unappre-
ciative women as you two," sighed Amanda, as
they rolled away from Nuuiero Due Piazza Bar-
berini, leaving Agrippina sobbing at the top of the
liLairs and the padrona bobbing little curtsies at
the bottom.

"I am sure the Cenci will haunt me all my days,
and 80 will many other famous things," said Matilda

ITALJ 177

while her eye roved fondly from a very brown Cap-
uchin monk to a squad of Bersaglieri trotting by
with jaunty cock's 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 judt now all that I can clearly recall are the three
facts that the Pope had a fit, our dear man Romeo
got very ti])sy 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 odor of sanctity w^hich 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
BBSthetic tea, soon set them up after the dissipation
of the winter.

Three pleasing events diversified their stay. The
12

178 SHAWL-STRAPS.

first happened the day after they arrived. The giils
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 a<i
the hotel. Following the grassy road that wir. d«
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 afterward came swiftly toward 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

ITALY. 179

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 fi-om 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 en am
damsels that they could not resist, and after rolling
up their eyes at one another to express their enjoy-
ment of the adventure, they graciously followed the
handsome youth into the villa.

With confiding hospitality he took them every-
where,— 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 Napo-
leon First that the girls spoke of it, and were
enraptured at the reply they received.

" Truly yes : we belong to the family. My mother
ifi a Buonaparte, my father Count "

"Here's richness and romance!" "What wiU
Livysay?" whispered the girls to one another, aa
their guide left them in the salon and went to find
his father.

180 SHA WL-S TRA PS.

" 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 tndts
so strongly marked that there could be no doubt of
the young man's assertion.

Presently he came back with an affable old gen-
tleman who evidently had ah eye to the main
chance ; for, in spite of his elegance and affability, ho
asked a great price for his rooms, and felt that any
untitled stranger should be glad to pay well for the
honor of living under the roof of a Buonaparte.

Amanda left the decision to her mvisible 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
10owers, 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 peas*
Bnts of the town.

Home they ran and bounced in upon Livy, bloom*

ITALJ 181

Ing and breathless, to pour out tlieir tale, and suggest
an immediate departure to the blissful spot where
counts and crocuses flourished with Italian luxuri-
ance.

But after the first excitement had subsided, Lav-
inia put a wet blanket on the entii-e 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 ^N'apoleonic heads with big, black
eyes, strong chins, and dark hair streaked across wide,
olive-colored 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 toward Albano.
He did not see the charmers as they crept down the

182 SHAWL-STRAPS.

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, declin-
ing the apartment in the name of Madame Duenna,
closed the door of this Eden upon the wandering
peris, who entered never more. Now and then aa
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 Slialott.

Tlie 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

ITALY. 183

a furred^ £ogged, and braided jacket, not to mention
the high boots and spurs, or the becoming cap, w as
so very polite to the lone lady that she could not
remain dumb without positive rudeness. So Amanda
conversed in her most charming m -nner, findiog
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, w^ho would
doubtless repeat their chat at head-quarters. To
seo 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

184 SHAWl^STRAPS.

be imagined when the dark face of lier officer peered
in at the car window, and the melodious voice asked
if he might be permitted to enter. Of com-se he
might ; and, as no secretary now spoilt the tete-a-tete^
Mars became delightfully confidential, and poured
his woes into the sympathizing bosom of Amanda.

It had been a great affliction to him that his regi-
ment was quartered at Albano for some months.
Mio Dlo ! 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 Signo-
rina loved to ride. Behold he had superb horses
langTiishing in the stables, that henceforth were
dedicated to her use. His fellow officers were gen-
tlemen of good fimily, 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
gentlemen and married ladies, then it would be
possible to enjoy the delights of which he spoke.
The Colonel vowed he would instantly devote him-

ITALY. 185

ielf to this task, and thus they came to the lonely
little station at Albano.

Amanda had ordered the carriage to meet her*
bat 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 lat^ 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 out-
side, singing as he tramped, and evidently enjoying
the escort duty that gave him so good an oppor-
tunity of displaying not only his gallantry, but his
fioe voice and handsome figure.

Down rattled the carriage at last, accompanied, U

186 SHAWL-STRAPS.

Amanda's dismay, by three of the Colonel's friendji,
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 mucli
prancing of their fine horses, Amanda was handed
to her seat, and went lumbering back to the hot©
with her splendid escort careering about her, to the
ejreat edification of the town.

When the rescued damsel told the tale to hei
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 any thing 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 douikeys, — 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.

ITALY. 187

It was all very nice ; and the girls were beginning
to feel tliat the charn\s of Albano rivalled those of
Rome, when a sad blow upset their castles « •^ho
air, and desolated the knights over tlie 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 gentlemen 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 impetu-
ous Mat would yield to the spell and go gambading
away for a ride sans duenna, sans habit, sa7is pro-
priety, sans every thing. Amanda likewise seemed
losing her head, and permitted the dark-eyed Col-
onel 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

188 iSHA WI^STRAPS.

well make up your minds to it, girls. I caniiot beai
this awful responsibility any longer; for I am very
sure you will both be off to Turin with those hand-
Bome rascals if we stay much longer. My mind is
male 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 valor for the whole party.

"I should never dare to go home and tell my
honored 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.

IIow she would ever have got them through that
last week is very uncertain, if a providential picnic
had not helped her.

ITALY. 189

A fail was held in the town, and a dehghtful sur-
prise-party was got up among the artists of Rome.
Twenty-five came driving over in a big cariiage,
with four gaily decorated horses, postilions, hampers
of lunch, flutes and horns, and much jollity bottled
up for ^he occasion.

A very festive spectacle they made as they drove
through the narrow streets with flowers and stream-
ers 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," modernized, would
give some idea of it ; for after the banquet all ad-
journed 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 Tedder's fine picture, the
ladies were as lovely, the gentlemen as gallant, and

190 SHA WL-S TRAPS.

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
deli gilts of the day.

This third and last event pleasantly ended their
Bojourn 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 can-
died 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 songa
of a chorus that floated under the windows in the
moonlight.

Lavinia never could get used to seeing the

ITALY. 191

Dutcher, 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-
ODlours, trpng to paint every thing 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 jewelry, which she
called "a sprigalario," for want of a better name,
and after each failure she went off to compose her-
self vnl\\ a visit to the Doges.

Of course they all saw the Biidge of Sighs and
the dungeons below, wdth their many hoiTors ; like-
wise a ]\[ass 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 oura
did one sunny day, sitting on church steps, and dis-
cover that the food of the Apostle was not the
iiiBect whose '^zeeing" foretells hot weather; but

192 SHAWL-STRAPS.

the long, dry pods of the locust-tree, sweet to the
taste, but rather " dry fodder," as the impious Liv}
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 to 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 th©
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 1
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

ITALY. 193

adore them, but I doubt it," returned the incorrigi-
ble Livy, and from that moment Amanda regarded
her granny as one dead to all the dear delusions of
antiquity.

VI.

LONDON.

"T^ItOM this moment I cease to be the com*

mander-in-chief. Livy adores England, can
Bpeak the language, understands the money, and
knows all about London ; so she shall be leader, and
I will repose after my long labor." With this re-
mark, Amanda retired fi'om office, covered with
glory, and her mates voted to erect a statue in her
honor as a token of their undying gratitude.

Lavinia took the lead from the moment they
landed at St. Catherine's Wharf, and though some
what 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 bee?
were nectar and ambrosia, after the continental
filops and messes; its steady-going, respectable

LONDON. 195

citizens beautiful in her eyes, and the worda
"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, j^ut the ladies in a first-
class compartment, gave them all necessary direc-
tions 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 beoause she
knew nothing of it.

"The cabman cheate(} us, asking double fares,*

196 SEA WL-STBAPS.

replied the dear girl, wrapping herself in many
cloaks and refusing to admire the fog.

"Not at all," cried Livy; "the trunks were im-
mense, 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 ti'ouhle. 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-look-
mg 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 arrange-
ments,— 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. T call that

LONDON. 197

an improvement on the continental cup, saucer, an»l
napkin accommodation," said Lavinia, proudly dis-
playing a wash-stand that looked like a dinner-tah'e
laid for a dozen, such was the display of glass, china,
and napery.

"The English certainly are a clean people," re-
plied 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 Matikhi, removing the soot fi'om 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 Chris-
tian w^omen 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

198 SHA WL-S TRAPS.

buttoE 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 waiting 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 tousled gary-o?ii
who fly about like lunatics, and food which I shud-
der to think of? Look at this lofty room; thij
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 in-
terest 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 gave 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 w^as low in the
pot.

" It is good," admitted Amanda, who took to bei

LONDON. 199

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 beau-
tiful 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 caln Jy,
and not bolt their meals, or rush about like run-
away 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, m j
(iranny, unless we intend to spend all our substance
on these restful comforts of yours. This hotel ia
delightfully cosey, but expensive; so the quicker we
go into lodgings the better for us," suggested the

200 SHA WI^STRAPS.

thrifty Amanda, seeing that Livy was too infatuated
to care foi cost.

" I'll go the first thing to-morrow and look at the
rooms Mrs. Blank recommended to us. ^ This after-
noon 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 news-
l>apers 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 ojDcn.

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

LONDON. 20J

women, anri to do the honors of London is no smaL
task; yet this heroic gentleman obeyed orders, with-
out 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
hear 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, un-
daunted 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.

202 SHAWL-STRAPS.

Imagine the emotions of one shy man when called
upon to lead a flock of somewhat imposing ladiea
everywhere ; to have two cabs fall 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.

Burger'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 w^as not such as intelligent men
enjoy, being composed of two Egy]3tian boys and
three fussy old ladies. One of them was immensely
Btout, wore a bright green cap, wdth ha^f 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
ha> e been a sister of " Mr. F.'s Aunt," so grim and
incoherent was she. Sitting in the corner, she
Btared at the world around her with an utterly
expressionless countenance, and when least expected
broke out vith some startling remark, such as, " If

LONDON 203

that fence had been painted green we should gel 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 bnxom
lady, much given to gay attire and reminiscences of
past glory, " Before me 'usband went into public
life." The strangers innocently supposed the de-
parted 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 hia
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 lodghig
house, where the hostess evidently intended to marry
bim to her daughter, in the MacStinger fishion.

In this varied circle did the devoted being afore

204 SB AWL-STRAPS.

mentioned pass many hours after the day's hard
labor was happily over, and when any one 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 dis-
obey Tom. In fact, I find I rather like it."

That last fib was truly sublime, and the name ol
Casablanca pales before that of one who obeyed fra-
ternal commands to the letter, and tried to love his
duty, heavy as it w^as. If, as has been sometimes pre-
dicted, England had gone under just then, it might
truly have been said, —

Though prince and peer and poet rare

Were sunk among tlie 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 Castlo
to the Tower of London, from Westminster Abbey
to Madame Taussaud's Waxwork Show with a vigor
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

LONDON. 205

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 cele-
brated 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 fi-iends in
London. Amanda could not conquer her prejudices
sufiiciently to accompany them, and, falling back on
the climate as her excuse, stayed at home and im
proved her mind.

" I feel now like girls in novels. You are the
Duchess of Devonshire and I am Lady Maud Plan-
tagenet, going to a ball at Buckingham Palaca
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 earrings, her curls were in their most pic-
turesque array, and — crowning joy of all — cream
colored gloves, with six buttons, covered her arms,
and filled her soul with happiness, because they wera

206 SEA WL-STRA PS

BO elegant and cost so little, being bought in ICome
just after the flood.

Dowager Livy responded gravely from the depths
of her silver-gray 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 in-
teresting woman to me than Victoria, for her life
is spent in helping her fellow-creatures. Z consider
her a model Englishwoman, — simple, sincere, and
accomphshed ; full of good sense, intelligence, and
energy. Her house is open to all, friend and stran-
ger, black and white, rich and poor. Great men and
earnest women meet there : Mazzini and Frances
Powder Cobbe, John Bright and Jean Ingelow, Ros-
getti 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

LONDON. 207

' of that xovely spot is a school, where poor girls may

get an education. Mrs. T. gave a piece of her own
gaiden for it, and teaches there herself, aided by her
friends, who serve the poor girls like mothers and
listers, and help to lift them up fi-om the slough of
despond in which so many sink. That beats any
thing you'll find in Buckingham Palace, sister
Mat."

" If they want a drawing teacher I'll offer my-
self, 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 m a wheelbaiTow." Now the same people

208 SHA WLr-STRAPS.

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 suit me better than the more demon-
strative 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 tor-
toise 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

LONDON. 209

minds, in strong, healthy bodies. No one com-
plained 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 elo-
quence.

Miss Livy's tastes being of a peculiar sort, and
pict'ires ha^-ing palled upon her to such a degi-ee
that she couldn't even look at an ornamental si^n-
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 wi-etched quarter of the

city, that the Tabernacle was two or three milea

away, and very difficult to enter when found, only

14

210 SUA WL-STRAPS.

added zest to the thing, and she departed, sure of
finding ad^ entiires, if not Spurgeon.

If an omnibus conductor had not befriended her,
she would probably have found herself at Ilampstead
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 w^ickedness were very
dreadful. Boys not yet in their teens staggered by
half tipsy, or lounged at the doors of gin-shops.
Bonne tless girls roamed about singing and squab-
bling. 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

LONDON. 211

Livy was Landed to a comfortable seat with a hag«
gard 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 colors, all ages, and nearly all bearing
the sad marks of poverty or sin. They all sung,
cried out if any thing affected or pleased them in the
sermon, and listened with intensest interest to the
plain yet fervent words of the man who has gathered
together this flock of black sheep and is so faithful a
Bhepherd to them.

Every one knows how Spurgeon looks in pictures,
but in the pulpit he reminded Livy of Martin Luther.
A square, florid fice, 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.

Ills sermon was on " Small Temptations," and he
illustrated it by facts and examples taken from roaJ

212 SHA WL-STRAPS.

life, pointing out several of bis congregation, and
calling them by name, wbich original proceeding
seemed to find favor 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
anteroom : 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 afiiictions of
the flesh, and ended by saying, in a paternal
way,—

" Now remember what I've said through tlio

LOJWON. 21 H

week, and next Sunday show me that I haven't
talked in vain."

He read a hst 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. Spur
geon evidently does not spare his own time and
strength ; and, whatever his creed may be, he is a
good Christian in loving his neighbor 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 trem-
bling 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

214 SHAWr^STRAPS.

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.

LXaspmg her hands with the energy of deep emo-
tion, she replied, —

*' The home of the immortal Sairy Gamp. Long
asfo I made a vow, if I ever came to London Vd
visit that spot. Let me keep my vow."

" You shall ! " responded the Professor with a
responsive ardor, 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 giimy
ehrines. They met several old friends, and passed
several familiar spots by the way. Major Bagstock
and Cousin Phenix stared at inem 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 ir

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 blightoi
Wilkins to jail.

In a certain grimly genteel street they paused to
fitare up at a row of grimly respectable houses; for,
though the name wasn't on any of the doors, they
were sure Mr. Donibey still lived there. A rough
dog lay on one >f the doorsteps, and a curtain flut-
tered 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 Pip-
chinses."

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-comer, and saw all the
little Tetterbys playing in the mud.

"Come down this street, and take a glimpse at
St. Giles, the worst part of London," said the Pro-
fessor; and, following, Livy saw misery enough in
five minutes to make her heart ache for the day. A

21 6 SEA WL-STRAPS.

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 thorough-
fares, and made Alsatia dangerous ground for respect-
able 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, look-
ing 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
Btreet, so like the description that I am sure Dickens
must have been thei-e 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

LONDON, 217

.t's Mrs. Wilkins, without even a pincushion pre-
pared."

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
Uves?"

"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 counte-
nance.

" 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 modem
Sairy, if the woman hadn't called out as they moved
on, —

"I b'lieve that nuss's name is Britian, not Gamp;
but you can ask."

Murmuring a hasty "thank you," they fled pre-

21 8 SUA WL-STRAPS.

cipitately round the comer, and there enjoyed a
glorious laugh under an umbrella, to the great
amazement of all beholders.

Being on a Dickens pilgrimage, they went tu
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 stiif, 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 1 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

LONDON. 219

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 ri^liculous,
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 ojie
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 oif ; the arch-
way under which poor Nicholas drove that cold
morning ; the office, or bar, where the miserable lit-
tle 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 tc
them like a father in public. Livy was tempted to
bring away a little porter-pot hanging outside th«

220 SEA WL-STRAPS.

door, as a trophy ; but fearing Squeers's squint' eye
was upon her, she refrained, and took a muddy peb-
ble 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 Shak-
Bpeare's Twelfth Night was played in Middle Tem-
ple 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 Pen-
dennis and Fanny, John Westlock and little Kuth
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 Lon-
don, and better still of Todgerses. Livy found the
Louse by instinct ; and saw Cherry Pecksniff, now a
sharp-nosed old woman, sitting at the back window,

LONDON. 221

A gaunt, anxious-looking lady, in a massive bonnet,
crossed the yard, with a basket in ber hand ; and the
Professor said at once, " That's Mrs. Todgers, and
tlie amount of gravy single gentlemen eat is still
V eighing heavy on her mind." As if to make the
th^g 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 tor-
ment 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-
bouse, and ordered the lunch, finding themselves
objects of interest to the other guests. But,
though a walking door-mat in point of mud^ and
somewhat flushed and excited by the hustling^

£22 SEAWL-STRAPS.

climbing and adoring, it is certain there wasn't a
happier spinster in this "Piljin Prqjess 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 thai
delightful Dickens day.

Much might be written about the domestic pleas-
ures 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 w^hat 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 inter-
views 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 N.v
tional Gallery, and her evenings in the society of
the eight agreeable gentlemen who adorned the
bouse where she abode.

LONDON. 223

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 embrao-
lEg 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 Pos-
sum. I shall not stay long because I can't possibly
ge*; 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 I" cried Amanda,
as a cheerful parting salute.

224 SHAWL-STRAPS.

"London and Turner! " shouted Matilda with hef
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 clatter-
ing frantically up alofl, 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
ieep 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 success-
ful 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

LONDON. 225

iafely over land and sea, had experienced two revo-
lutions, an earthquake, an eclipse, and a flood, yet
met with no loss, no mishap, no quarrel, and no dis-
appointment 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
iheir bundles in light marching order, and push
boldly off. They will need no protector but their
own courage, no guide but their own good sens©
and Yankee wit, and no interpreter if that wom-
an's best gift, the tongue, has a little French polish
on it.

Dear Amandas, Matildas, and Lavinias, why delay ?
Wait for no man, but take your little store and
invest it in something far better than Paris finery
Geneva jewelry, 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 soulj
elevated by the wonders of art and the divinei
miracles of Nature.

Leave ennui and discontent, frivolity and feeble

225 SEA WL-STRAPS.

ness, 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, hap-
piest, and handsomest women in the world.

University Press ; John Wilson & Son, Cambridge-

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