as speaking we had turned from the terrace and were
nearing the Mazet--which diminutive of the Provencal word _mas_, meaning
farm-house, is applied to the farm establishment at Vielmur partly in
friendliness and partly in indication of its dependence upon the great
house, the Chateau. At the arched entrance we found the farm family
awaiting us: Old Jan, the steward of the estate, and his wife Elizo;
Marius, their elder son, a man over forty, who is the active manager of
affairs; their younger son, Esperit, and their daughter Nanoun; and the
wife of Marius, Janetoun, to whose skirts a small child was clinging
while three or four larger children scampered about her in a whir of
excitement over the imminent event by which Christmas really would be
ushered in.

When my presentation had been accomplished--a matter a little
complicated in the case of old Jan, who, in common with most of the old
men hereabouts, speaks only Provencal--we set off across the home
vineyard, and thence went upward through the olive-orchards, to the high
region on the mountain-side where grew the almond-tree which the Vidame
and his steward in counsel together had selected for the Christmas
sacrifice.

Nanoun, a strapping red-cheeked black-haired bounce of twenty, ran back
into the Mazet as we started; and joined us again, while we were
crossing the vineyard, bringing with her a gentle-faced fair girl of her
own age who came shyly. The Vidame, calling her Magali, had a cordial
word for this new-comer; and nudged me to bid me mark how promptly
Esperit was by her side. "It is as good as settled," he whispered. "They
have been lovers since they were children. Magali is the daughter of
Elizo's foster-sister, who died when the child was born. Then Elizo
brought her home to the Mazet, and there she has lived her whole
lifelong. Esperit is waiting only until he shall be established in the
world to speak the word. And the scamp is in a hurry. Actually, he is
pestering me to put him at the head of the Lower Farm!"

The Vidame gave this last piece of information in a tone of severity;
but there was a twinkle in his kind old eyes as he spoke which led me to
infer that Master Esperit's chances for the stewardship of the Lower
Farm were anything but desperate, and I noticed that from time to time
he cast very friendly glances toward these young lovers--as our little
procession, mounting the successive terraces, went through the
olive-orchards along the hill-s