that opinion, it is very difficult to fight against the current.

When I first married, just after the Franco-Prussian War, there seemed
some chance of the moderate men, on both sides, joining in a common
effort against the radical movement, putting themselves at the head of
it and in that way directing and controlling--but very soon the
different sections in parliament defined themselves so sharply that
any sort of compromise was difficult. My host was named deputy,
immediately after the war, and though by instinct, training, and
association a Royalist and a personal friend of the Orléans family, he
was one of a small group of liberal-patriotic deputies who might have
supported loyally a moderate Republic had the other Republicans not
made their position untenable. There was an instinctive, unreasonable
distrust of any of the old families whose names and antecedents had
kept them apart from any republican movement.

We had pleasant afternoons in the big drawing-room. In the morning we
did what we liked. The Maîtresse de Maison never appeared in the
drawing-room till the twelve o'clock breakfast. I used to see her from
my window, coming and going--sometimes walking, when she was making
the round of the farm and garden, oftener in her little pony carriage
and occasionally in the automobile of her niece, who was staying in
the house. She occupied herself very much with all the village--old
people and children, everybody. After breakfast we used to sit
sometimes in the drawing-room--the two ladies working, the Comte de S.
reading his paper and telling us anything interesting he found there.
Both ladies had most artistic work--Mme. de S. a church ornament,
white satin ground with raised flowers and garlands, stretched, of
course, on the large embroidery frames they all use. Her niece,
Duchesse d'E., had quite another "installation" in one of the