their circle.

* * * * *

Another interesting old château, most picturesque, with towers, moat,
and drawbridge, is Lorrey-le-Bocage, belonging to the Comte de S. It
stands very well, in a broad moat--the water clear and rippling and
finishing in a pretty little stream that runs off through the meadows.
The place is beautifully kept--gardens, lawns, courts, in perfect
order. It has no particular _historic_ interest for the family, having
been bought by the parents of the present owner.

I was there, the first time, in very hot weather, the 14th of July
(the French National fête commemorating the fall of the Bastille). I
went for a stroll in the park the morning after I arrived, but I
collapsed under a big tree at once--hadn't the energy to move.
Everything looked so hot and not a breath of air anywhere. The moat
looked glazed--so absolutely still under the bright summer sun--big
flies were buzzing and skimming over the surface, and the flowers and
plants were drooping in their beds.

Inside it was delightful, the walls so thick that neither heat nor
cold could penetrate. The house is charming. The big drawing-room--where
we always sat--was a large, bright room with windows on each side and
lovely views over park and gardens; and all sorts of family portraits
and souvenirs dating from Louis XV to the Comte de Paris. The men of
the family--all ardent Royalists--have been, for generations,
distinguished as soldiers and statesmen.

One of them--a son of the famous Maréchal de S, brought up in the last