little frocks and show me their crochet petticoats whenever we meet
them. They are delighted to have them, for those we make are of good
wool (not laine de bienfaisance, which is stiff and coarse), and last
much longer than those one buys.

The second day was quite different. There was no shooting. We were
left to our own devices until twelve o'clock breakfast. W. and I went
for a short stroll in the park. We met M. A., who took us over the
farm, all so well ordered and prosperous. After breakfast we had about
an hour of salon before starting for the regular tournée de
propriétaire through park and gardens. The three ladies--Mme. A., her
daughter, and daughter-in-law--had beautiful work. Mme. A. was making
portières for her daughter's room, a most elaborate pattern, reeds and
high plants, a very large piece of work; the other two had also very
complicated work--one a table-cover, velvet, heavily embroidered, the
other a church ornament (almost all the Frenchwomen of a certain monde
turn their wedding dresses, usually of white satin, into a priest's
vêtement). The Catholic priests have all sorts of vestments which they
wear on different occasions; purple in Lent, red on any martyr's fête,
white for all the fêtes of the Virgin. Some of the churches are very
rich with chasubles and altar-cloths trimmed with fine old lace, which
have been given to them. It looks funny sometimes to see a very
ordinary country curé, a farmer's son, with a heavy peasant face,
wearing one of those delicate white-satin chasubles.

Before starting to join the shooters at breakfast Mme. A. took me all
over the house. It is really a beautiful establishment, very large,
and most comfortable. Quantities of pictures and engravings, and
beautiful Empire furniture. There is quite a large chapel at the end
of the corridor on the ground-floor, where they have mass every