, as Monsieur R. wanted to show it to
some gentlemen who were with us. The drive, if anything, was more lovely
than the first time, the slanting rays of the sun were so beautiful
shining through the rich green foliage, making patterns upon the hard,
white road. We raced all over the country, through countless little
villages, all exactly alike, sometimes flying past a stately old brick
chateau just seen at the end of a long, beech avenue, sometimes past an
old church standing high, its gray stone steeple showing well against
the bright, cloudless sky, and a little graveyard stretching along the
hillside, the roads bordered on each side with high green banks and
hedges, the orchards full of apple-trees, and the whole active
population of the village in the fields. It is a beautiful month to be
in Normandy, for one must have sun in these parts. As soon as it rains
everything is gray and cold and melancholy, the forest looks like a
great high black wall, the meadows are shrouded in mist, and the damp
strikes through one. Now it is smiling, sunny, peaceful.

We have frightened various horses to-day; a quiet old gray steed, driven
by two old ladies in black bonnets. They were too old to get out, and
were driving their horse timidly and nervously into the ditch in their
anxiety to give us all the road. However, we slowed up and the horse
didn't look as if he could run away. Two big carthorses, too, at the end
of a long line, dragging a heavy wagon, turned short round and almost
ran into us; also a very small donkey, driven by a little brown girl,
showed symptoms of flight. I don't know the names of half the villages
we passed through. Near Bagnoles we came to La Ferte-Mace, which looks
quite imposing as one comes down upon it from the top of a long hill.
The church makes a great effect--looks almost like a cathedral. Bagnoles
looked very animated as we came back. People were loitering about
shopping--quite a number of carriages and autos before the door of the
Grand Hotel, and people sitting out under the trees in the gardens of
the different villas. It was decidedly cool at the end of our outing; I
was glad to have my coat.

This morning after breakfast, in the big hall, where every one
congregates for coffee, we had a little political talk--not very
satisfactory. Everybody is discontented and everybody protests, but no
one seems able to stop the radical current. The rupture with the Vatican
has come at last, and I think mi