ted; for upon that evening, having no duties to
perform in the way of lessons, I sat with my parents in the parlor upon
the ground floor which overlooked the street; therefore, when almost
upon the stroke of nine, the poor old woman passed along the sidewalk,
and her sonorous chant broke into the stillness of the frosty night I
was near enough to hear her distinctly.

She presaged the coming of cold weather as swallows announce the advent
of the spring. After a succession of cool autumnal days, the first time
we heard her song we would say: "Well, we may conclude that winter is
really here."

This parlor where we sat together seemed a very immense room to me.
It was simply and tastefully furnished and arranged: the walls and
the woodwork were brown, decorated with strips of gold: the furniture,
dating from the time of Louis Philippe, was upholstered in red velvet;
the family portraits were in severe black and gold frames; in the centre
of the table, in the place of honor, there was a large Bible that had
been printed in the sixteenth century. This was a precious heirloom that
had come down to us from our Huguenot ancestors who had, at that time,
been persecuted for their faith. We had baskets and vases of flowers
disposed about the room, a custom which then was not so usual as it is
now.

It was always a delicious moment for me when we left the dining-room and
went into the parlor, for the latter room had an air of great peace and
comfort; and when all the family were seated there in a circle, mother,
grandmother and aunts, I began to skip about noisily in their midst
from very joy at being surrounded by so many loved ones; and I waited
impatiently for them to begin the little games which they were in
the habit of playing with me early in the evening. Our neighbors, the
D----'s, came to see us every Sunday; it was a time-honored custom in
our two families, between whom there existed a friendship that had
its inception in the country generations before our time; it was a
friendship which had been handed down to us as a precious heritage. At
about eight o'clock, when I recognized their ring, I jumped for joy,
and I could not restrain myself from running to the street door to meet
them, for Lucette, my dear friend, always came with her parents.

Alas! how sad is my reverie when I think of the beloved and venerated
forms of those who surrounded me upon those happy Sunday evenings;
the majority of them have passed away,