Now if you consider
the nature of these fellow-travellers, you will allow it not so easy a
matter as may at first be supposed, especially as their fair mistress
will not allow any of them to be placed in any other carriage than her
own.--A fray happened yesterday between the cat and the dog, during which
the birds were overset, and the plants broken. Poor M. de ____, with a
sort of rueful good nature, separated the combatants, restored order, and
was obliged to purchase peace by charging himself with the care of the
aggressor.
I should not have dwelt so long on these trifling occurrences, but that
they are characteristic. In England, this passion for animals is chiefly
confined to old maids, but here it is general. Almost every woman,
however numerous her family, has a nursery of birds, an angola, and two
or three lap-dogs, who share her cares with her husband and children.
The dogs have all romantic names, and are enquired after with so much
solicitude when they do not make one in a visit, that it was some time
before I discovered that Nina and Rosine were not the young ladies of the
family. I do not remember to have seen any husband, however master of
his house in other respects, daring enough to displace a favourite
animal, even though it occupied the only vacant fauteuil.
The entrance into Artois from Picardy, though confounded by the new
division, is sufficiently marked by a higher cultivation, and a more
fertile soil.
Pages:
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68