adapted to travelling than the full costume of Paris. It was what she
called en Amazone--namely, a clothe riding-habit faced with blue, with
a short skirt, with open coat and waistcoat, like a man's, hair
unpowdered and tied behind, and a large shady feathered hat. Estelle
wore a miniature of the same, and rejoiced in her freedom from the
whalebone stiffness of her Paris life, skipping about the deck with her
brother, like fairies, Lanty said, or, as she preferred to make it,
'like a nymph.'

The water coach moved only by day, and was already arrived before the
land one brought the weary party to the meeting-place--a picturesque
water-side inn with a high roof, and a trellised passage down to the
landing-place, covered by a vine, hung with clusters of ripe grapes.

Here the travellers supped on omelettes and vin ordinaire, and went off
to bed--Madame and her child in one bed, with the maids on the floor,
and in another room the Abbe and secretary, each in a grabat, the two
men-servants in like manner, on the floor. Such was the privacy of the
eighteenth century, and Arthur, used to waiting on himself, looked on
with wonder to see the Abbe like a baby in the hands of his faithful
foster-brother, who talked away in a queer mixture of Irish-English and
French all the time until they knelt down and said their prayers
together in Latin, to which Arthur diligently closed his Protestant
ears.

Early the next morning the family embarked, the carriage having been
already put on board; and the journey became very agreeable as they
glided slowly, almost dreamily along, borne chiefly by the current,
although a couple of horses towed the barge by a rope on the bank, in
case of need, in places where the water was more sluggish, but nothing