nly ten o'clock when I got here; then I went to walk,
many _enfans terribles_ following respectfully; then I came
home, and ate the funny refection; then I got a nap; then I went
to walk again, and made a little sketch in the churchyard: and
this time, one of the children brought up her mother, a funny
Norman woman, in a delicious costume,--I have a sketch of
another just like her,--and she dropped a courtesy, and in a
very mild _patois_ said she hoped the children did not trouble
madame. And I said, "Oh, no!" and found a sugar-plum for the
child and showed my sketch to the woman; and she said she
supposed madame was _Anglaise_.

I said I was not _Anglaise_,--and here the story begins; for I
said I was _Americaine_. And, do you know, her face lighted up
as if I had said I was St. Gulda, or St. Hilda, or any of their
Northmen Saints.

"Americaine! est-il possible? Jeannette, Gertrude, faites vos
reverences. Madame est Americaine."

And, sure enough, they all dropped preternatural courtesies. And
then the most eager enthusiasm; how fond they all were of _les
Americaines_, but how no _Americaines_ had ever come before! And
was madame at the Three Cygnets? And might she and her son and
her husband call to see madame at the Three Cygnets? And might
she bring a little _etrenne_ to madame? And I know not what
beside.

I was very glad the national reputation had gone so far. I
really wished I were Charles Sumner (pardon me, dear Agnes),
that I might properly receive the delegation. But I said, "Oh,
certainly!" and, as it grew dark, with my admiring _cortege_
whispering now to the street full of admirers that madame was
_Americaine_, I returned to the Three Cygnets.

And in the evening they all came. Really, you should see the
pretty basket they brought for an _etrenne_. I could not guess
then where they got such exquisite flowers; these lovely
stephanotis blossoms, a perfect wealth of roses, and all
arranged with charming taste in a quaint country basket, such as
exists nowhere but in this particular section of this quaint old
Normandy. In came the husband, dressed up, and frightened, but
thoroughly good in his look. In came my friend; and then two
sons and two wives, and three or four children: and, my dear
Agnes, one of the sons, I knew him in an instant, was a man