FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55  
56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   >>   >|  
lazed beside the table a torch in representation of the Star which guided Melchior and his fellow kings to Bethlehem. A reminiscence of this general charity still survives in the little town of Sollies, tucked away in the mountains not far from Toulon. There, at Christmas time, thirteen poor people known as "the Apostles" (though there is one to spare) receive at the town-house a dole of two pounds of meat, two loaves of bread, some figs and almonds, and a few sous. And throughout Provence the custom still is general that each well-to-do family shall send a portion of its Christmas loaf--the _pan calendau_--to some friend or neighbour to whom Fortune has been less kind. But, happily, this gift nowadays often is a mere friendly compliment, like the gift of _fougasso_; for the times are past when weak-kneed and spasmodic charity dealt with real poverty in Provence. X 'Twas with such kindly reminiscences of old-time benevolence, rather than with explosive archaeological matters, that I kept the Vidame from falling again a-fuming--while we waited through the dusk for the coming of seven o'clock, at which hour the festivities at the Mazet were to begin. Our waiting place was the candle-lit salon: a stately old apartment floored formally with squares of black and white marble, furnished in the formal style of the eighteenth century, and hung around with formal family portraits and curious old prints in which rather lax classical subjects were treated with a formal severity. The library being our usual habitat, I inferred that our change of quarters was in honour of the day. It was much to my liking; for in that antiquely ordered room--and the presence of the Vidame helped the illusion--I felt always as though I had stepped backward into the thick of eighteenth century romance. But for the Vidame, although he also loves its old time flavour, the salon had no charms just then; and when the glass-covered clock on the mantle chimed from among its gilded cupids the three-quarters he arose with a brisk alacrity and said that it was time for us to be off. Our march--out through the rear door of the Chateau and across the court-yard to the Mazet--was processional. All the household went with us. The Vidame gallantly gave his arm to Mise Fougueiroun; I followed with her first officer--a sauce-box named Mouneto, so plumply provoking and charming in her Arlesian dress that I will not say what did or did not happen in the dark
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55  
56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Vidame

 

formal

 
century
 

quarters

 

Provence

 

family

 

Christmas

 

charity

 

general

 
eighteenth

stepped
 

liking

 

illusion

 
backward
 
ordered
 

antiquely

 

presence

 
helped
 

severity

 
portraits

curious

 
prints
 
marble
 

furnished

 

classical

 

subjects

 
inferred
 

change

 

honour

 
habitat

treated
 

library

 

chimed

 

Fougueiroun

 

officer

 

gallantly

 

processional

 

household

 

happen

 
Arlesian

charming
 
Mouneto
 

plumply

 

provoking

 

Chateau

 
covered
 

squares

 

mantle

 

charms

 

flavour