, and combs in their
hair. I like them frightfully, but they are very rude sometimes,
saying France is better than England, and that we have big teeth and
ugly boots. Then they got angry because I laughed, and said England
always thought she was right, but that everyone else knew she was a
cheat and a bully, and that she was the most disliked nation on earth!
"And you are the politest," says I, quite composed, and at that they
got red in the face, for I was all alone, and there were two of them
in their own country.

"`When they went away they kissed me, and said they were sorry, and
that my teeth weren't big a bit, and I said France was an elegant
country, but you couldn't wear high heels in Ireland, or you'd never
be free of the bog. It's a pity French people don't like us, and I
don't think they always mean exactly what they say, but they make
beautiful things to eat.

"`Therese gives me cooking lessons out of school hours, and I've lost
my taste for coffee with grounds in it, like we had at Knock.
Everything is as clean as if it were quite new, and there is such a
different smell in the houses--a lonely smell! It makes me long for
home and you, and a peat fire, and all the people in the streets
speaking English, and never as much as thinking of the tenses of
verbs.

"`You are quite sure I may come home in January, aren't you, Bridgie?
You are not saying it just to pacify me? I'll tell you a secret!
Once I thought of running away and coming back to you in London,
because I couldn't bear myself any longer. I said to Therese, just in
a careless kind of way, as if I had only thought of it that moment:
"Supposing now that a young girl was in Paris, and wanting to run away
to her friends in England, how would she set about getting there?"

"`And she never suspected a bit, for she said:--

"`"Supposing that she lived in this suburb, it would be quite easy to
manage. She should rest tranquil until the family were in bed, and no
one in the streets but thieves and robbers, and then slip out of the
house and walk to the station. There would be no _voiture_, but
perhaps the thieves may not see her, and all of them do not care about
kidnapping children. When she reaches the station, she will take her
ticket for England--it costs but a few sovereigns--and she has only to
change twice, and get through the custom-house. If all went well, she