lack will be the latest tip
of nature." The Riviera towns under the lee of mountains do not have a
lingering twilight.

But when we had finished dinner an _affiche_ announcing _Aida_ turned us
from the Salles de Jeu to the Salle du Theatre. To most people gambling
is a pastime not taken seriously. Only when it is a passion does one
find in it the exclusive attraction of Monte Carlo. This is proved by
the excellence of Monte Carlo opera. No metropolis boasts of a better
orchestra and chorus; and the most famous singers are always eager to
appear at Monte Carlo.

CHAPTER VIII

VILLEFRANCHE

During the heat of the war, shortly after the intervention of the
United States, I wrote a magazine article setting forth for American
readers the claims of France to Alsace-Lorraine and trying to explain
why the French felt as they did about Alsace-Lorraine. Of course I
spoke of Strasbourg and Mulhouse; but a copy-reader, faithfully making
all spellings conform to the Century Dictionary, changed my MS. reading
to Strassburg and Mulhauesen. Can you imagine my horror when I saw
those awful German names staring out at me under my own signature--and
in an article espousing the side of France in the Alsace-Lorraine
controversy? Perhaps not--unless you understand the feeling of the
actual possessor and the aspirant to possession of border and other
moot territories. "By their spelling ye shall know them!" is their
cry. Later, I happened to be in America when that dear good faithful
copy-reader changed my Bizerte to the dictionary's Bizerta in an
article on Tunis, and was able to go to the mat with him. I explained
that the spelling was an essential part of the political tenor of the
article.

All this I repeated to the wife and critic combined in one delightful
but Ulster-minded person who insisted that in English Menton must be
spelled Mentone.

"You write Marseilles instead of Marseille and put the 's' on Lyon too:
I've seen you do it!" she cried. "And the French call London Londres!"

"But those cities happen not to be in _terre irredente_," I explained.
"Menton lies too near the Italian frontier for a friend of France to
call it Mentone, whatever the English usage may be. If we retain
Mentone, why have we abandoned Nizza for Nice, Eza for Eze, Roccabruna
for Roquebrune, Monte Calvo for Mont Chauve, Testa del Can for Tete du
Chien, Villa Franca for Villefranche?"

"Since you have at last arrived at Villefran