umbled under the
salty vapors of the atmosphere. Above the arch of each window with its
crossbars of stone, still grinds, as it turns, the vane of a noble.

Let us not forget a precious detail, full of naivete, which will be of
value in the eyes of an archaeologist. The tower in which the spiral
staircase goes up is placed at the corner of a great gable wall in which
there is no window. The staircase comes down to a little arched door,
opening upon a gravelled yard which separates the house from the
stables. This tower is repeated on the garden side by another of five
sides, ending in a cupola in which is a bell-turret, instead of being
roofed, like the sister-tower, with a pepper-pot. This is how those
charming architects varied the symmetry of their sky-lines. These
towers are connected on the level of the first floor by a stone gallery,
supported by what we must call brackets, each ending in a grotesque
human head. This gallery has a balustrade of exquisite workmanship. From
the gable above depends a stone dais like those that crown the statues
of saints at the portal of churches. Can you not see a woman walking in
the morning along this balcony and gazing over Guerande at the sunshine,
where it gilds the sands and shimmers on the breast of Ocean? Do you not
admire that gable wall flanked at its angles with those varied towers?
The opposite gable of the Guaisnic mansion adjoins the next house.
The harmony so carefully sought by the architects of those days is
maintained in the facade looking on the court-yard by the tower which
communicates between the dining-room and the kitchen, and is the same as
the staircase tower, except that it stops at the first upper story and
its summit is a small open dome, beneath which stands a now blackened
statue of Saint Calyste.

The garden is magnificent for so old a place. It covers half an acre of
ground, its walls are all espaliered, and the space within is divided
into squares for vegetables, bordered with cordons of fruit-trees, which
the man-of-all-work, named Gasselin, takes care of in the intervals of
grooming the horses. At the farther end of the garden is a grotto with
a seat in it; in the middle, a sun-dial; the paths are gravelled. The
facade on the garden side has no towers corresponding to those on the
court-yard; but a slender spiral column rises from the ground to the
roof, which must in former days have borne the banner of the family, for
at its summit may still be