"But if you are not tired we can cross the river
and call at Clochegourde and you shall renew acquaintance with those
particular shoulders."

I agreed, not without a blush of shame and pleasure. About four o'clock
we reached the little chateau on which my eyes had fastened from the
first. The building, which is finely effective in the landscape, is in
reality very modest. It has five windows on the front; those at each
end of the facade, looking south, project about twelve feet,--an
architectural device which gives the idea of two towers and adds grace
to the structure. The middle window serves as a door from which you
descend through a double portico into a terraced garden which joins the
narrow strip of grass-land that skirts the Indre along its whole course.
Though this meadow is separated from the lower terrace, which is shaded
by a double line of acacias and Japanese ailanthus, by the country road,
it nevertheless appears from the house to be a part of the garden, for
the road is sunken and hemmed in on one side by the terrace, on the
other side by a Norman hedge. The terraces being very well managed
put enough distance between the house and the river to avoid the
inconvenience of too great proximity to water, without losing the charms
of it. Below the house are the stables, coach-house, green-houses,
and kitchen, the various openings to which form an arcade. The roof is
charmingly rounded at the angles, and bears mansarde windows with carved
mullions and leaden finials on their gables. This roof, no doubt much
neglected during the Revolution, is stained by a sort of mildew produced
by lichens and the reddish moss which grows on houses exposed to the
sun. The glass door of the portico is surmounted by a little tower
which holds the bell, and on which is carved the escutcheon of the
Blamont-Chauvry family, to which Madame de Mortsauf belonged, as
follows: Gules, a pale vair, flanked quarterly by two hands clasped or,
and two lances in chevron sable. The motto, "Voyez tous, nul ne touche!"
struck me greatly. The supporters, a griffin and dragon gules, enchained
or, made a pretty effect in the carving. The Revolution has damaged the
ducal crown and the crest, which was a palm-tree vert with fruit or.
Senart, the secretary of the committee of public safety was bailiff of
Sache before 1781, which explains this destruction.

These arrangements give an elegant air to the little castle, dainty as
a flower, which seems to