t
an hour of salon before starting for the regular tournee de
proprietaire through park and gardens. The three ladies--Mme. A., her
daughter, and daughter-in-law--had beautiful work. Mme. A. was making
portieres for her daughter's room, a most elaborate pattern, reeds and
high plants, a very large piece of work; the other two had also very
complicated work--one a table-cover, velvet, heavily embroidered, the
other a church ornament (almost all the Frenchwomen of a certain monde
turn their wedding dresses, usually of white satin, into a priest's
vetement). The Catholic priests have all sorts of vestments which they
wear on different occasions; purple in Lent, red on any martyr's fete,
white for all the fetes of the Virgin. Some of the churches are very
rich with chasubles and altar-cloths trimmed with fine old lace, which
have been given to them. It looks funny sometimes to see a very
ordinary country cure, a farmer's son, with a heavy peasant face,
wearing one of those delicate white-satin chasubles.

Before starting to join the shooters at breakfast Mme. A. took me all
over the house. It is really a beautiful establishment, very large,
and most comfortable. Quantities of pictures and engravings, and
beautiful Empire furniture. There is quite a large chapel at the end
of the corridor on the ground-floor, where they have mass every
Sunday. The young couple have a charming installation, really a small
house, in one of the wings--bedrooms, dressing-rooms, boudoir, cabinet
de travail, and a separate entrance--so that M. A. can receive any one
who comes to see him on business without having them pass through the
chateau. Mme. A. has her rooms on the ground-floor at the other end of
the house. Her sitting-room with glass door opens into a winter garden
filled with plants, which gives on the park; her bedroom is on the
other side, looking on the court-yard; a large library next it, light
and space everywhere, plenty of servants, everything admirably
arranged.

The evening mail goes out at 7.30, and every evening at seven exactly
the letter-carrier came down the corridor knocking at all the doors
and asking for letters. He had stamps, too, at least _French_ stamps.
I could never get a foreign stamp (twenty-five centimes)--had to put
one of fifteen and two of five when I had a foreign letter. I don't
really think there were any in the country. I don't believe they had a
foreign correspondent of any description. It was a thorou