ned the
whole house, opened and shut all the windows night and morning (almost
work enough for one man), lit the caloriferes, scrubbed and swept and
polished floors from early dawn until ten o'clock, when we left the
salon. He never lived with the other servants, cooked his own food at
his own hours in his room, and his only companion was a large black
cat, which always followed him about. He did W.'s service, and W. said
that they used to talk about all sorts of things, but I fancy master
and servant were equally reticent and understood each other without
many words.

I slipped one day on the very slippery wooden steps leading from W.'s
little study to the passage. Baby did the same, and got a nasty fall
on the stone flags, so I asked W. if he would ask Ferdinand to put a
strip of carpet on the steps (there were only four). W. gave the
order, but no carpet appeared. He repeated it rather curtly. The old
Ferdinand made no answer, but grumbled to himself over his broom that
it was perfectly foolish and useless to put down a piece of carpet,
that for sixty years people and children, and babies, had walked down
those steps and no one had ever thought of asking for carpets. W. had
really rather to apologize and explain that his wife was nervous and
unused to such highly polished floors. However, we became great
friends afterward, Ferdinand and I, and when he understood how fond I
was of the chateau, he didn't mind my deranging the furniture a
little. Two grand pianos were a great trial to him. I think he would
have liked to put one on top of the other.

[Illustration: Ferdinand.]

The library, quite at one end of the house, separated from the
drawing-room we always sat in by a second large salon, was a
delightful, quiet resort when any one wanted to read or write. There
were quantities of books, French, English, and German--the classics in
all three languages, and a fine collection of historical memoirs.

II

COUNTRY VISITS

We didn't pay many visits; but sometimes, when the weather was fine
and there was no hunting, and W. gone upon an expedition to some
outlying village, Mme. A. and I would start off for one of the
neighbouring chateaux. We went one day to the chateau de C, where
there was a large family party assembled, four generations--the old
grandmother, her son and daughter, both married, the daughter's
daughter, also married, and her children. It was a pretty drive,
about an hour all through the fo