arkably discreet, prescribes that only two
persons of each family should avail themselves of the summons--the
head of the family and one of the children.

The invitations being concluded, the betrothed couple and their
relatives repaired to dinner together at the farmhouse, after which
Marie tended her three sheep on the common, and Germain went to work
in the fields, as if nothing had happened.

The day before that appointed for the wedding, at two o'clock in the
afternoon, the band of music arrived--that is to say, the _bagpipe_,
and the man with the _triangle_,--their instruments ornamented with
long floating ribbons, and playing a march for the occasion, somewhat
slow, indeed, for feet not indigenous to the country, but in perfect
harmony with the character of the soil and the up-and-down nature of
the roads in those parts. Some pistol-shots, fired by the young folks
and children, announced the commencement of the nuptials. The company
gradually assembled, and a dance was struck up on the grass-plot
before the house. At nightfall, strange preparations were begun, the
party separating into two bands; and when darkness closed in, they
proceeded to the ceremony of the _livrees_, or present-making.

This took place at the house of the bride--Mrs Guillette's cottage.
The good woman took with her her daughter; a dozen young and pretty
_pastourelles_, Marie's friends and relatives; two or three
respectable matrons, her neighbours, loquacious, quick of reply, and
rigid guardians of ancient usages; then she selected a dozen vigorous
champions from her kinsmen and friends; and lastly, the old
_chauvreur_ or flaxdresser of the parish, a man of eloquence and
address if ever there was one.

The part that in Brittany is played by the _bazvalan_ or village
tailor, is in our part of the country acted by the flaxdresser or
woolcomber--two professions which are often united. He is present at
all solemnities, gay or grave, being essentially a man of erudition
and a good speaker; and on these occasions he has always to act as
spokesman, and to execute well and worthily certain formularies of
speech, in use from time immemorial. His wandering profession, which
introduces the man into so many family circles, without allowing him
to fix himself in his own, naturally serves to render him talkative
and amusing, a ready story-teller, and an able man of song.

The flaxdresser is particularly sceptical. He and another rustic
functionary,