y sleep. One of these young women might be twenty; the
other, though tall, could not be more than fourteen.

I rose early in the morning with the purpose of a walk in the fields
around the town, and finding Felice was going to fetch some milk from a
village about half a mile distant, I accompanied her. It is needless to
say that she played off all the coquetries which are natural to French
girls in whatever station. By dint of frequent questions, however, I
collected from her some useful information. I had adopted it as a rule,
to obtain information on three points in every French town or village
where I might happen to stop--the price of provisions, the price of
land, and the price of house-rent. The price of provisions at Saumur, as
I learned from this girl, was very cheap: beef, not very good, that is,
not very fat, about 1-1/2_d._ (English) per pound; mutton and veal about
2_d._;--two fowls 8_d._; two ducks 10_d._; geese and turkies from 1_s._
6_d._ to 2_s._ 6_d._.;--fuel, as much as would serve three fires for the
year, about 5_l._;--a house of two stories and garrets, two rooms in
front and two in back in each story, such being the manner in which they
are built, a passage running through the middle, and the rooms being on
each side--such a house, resembling an English parsonage, about five
Louis a year; or with a garden, paddock, and orchard, about eight
Louis;--butter 8_d._ per pound; cheese 4_d._; and milk a halfpenny a
quart. According to the best estimate I could make, a family,
consisting of a man, his wife, three or four children, two
maid-servants, a man-servant, and three horses, might be easily kept at
Saumur, and in its neighbourhood, for about 100_l._ a year. I am fully
persuaded that I am rather over than under the mark. The country
immediately about Saumur is as lively and beautiful as the town itself.
It chiefly consists of corn-fields studded with groves, or rather tufts
of trees, and divided by green fences, in which were pear and
apple-trees in full bearing. The fields near the town had paths around
them and across them, where the towns-folk, as I understood from my
informer, were accustomed to walk in the evening and which, the corn
being ripe and high, were pleasantly recluse. Felice and myself crossed
three or four of them, and if I may judge from the little scrupulosity
with which she ran amongst the corn, the proprietors of the lands must
gain little from their fields being the customary prom