ILLUSTRATIONS

A country wedding
A fine old chateau
I loved to hear her play Beethoven and Handel
there were all sorts and kinds
Ferdinand
“Merci, je vais bien”
Long pauses when nobody seemed to have anything to say
then he lighted A fire
I suggested that the whole chasse should adjourn to the chateau
some red-coated, some green, all with breeches and high muddy boots
peasant women
A visit at the chateau
soldiers at the chateau
the mayor and A nice, red-cheeked, wrinkled old woman were waiting for us
there was one handsome bit of old lace on A white nappe for the altar
they were all streaming up the slippery hill-side
all the children in procession passed
there was one poor old woman still gazing spell-bound
L’ETABLISSEMENT, Bagnoles de L’ORNE
in Domfront some of the old towers are converted into modern dwellings
chateau de Lassay
entrance to hotel of the comte de Florian
market women, Valognes
old gate-way, Valognes

[Illustration:  A fine old chateau.]

I

CHATEAU LIFE

My first experience of country life in France, about thirty years ago, was in a fine old chateau standing high in pretty, undulating, wooded country close to the forest of Villers-Cotterets, and overlooking the great plains of the Oise—­big green fields stretching away to the sky-line, broken occasionally by little clumps of wood, with steeples rising out of the green, marking the villages and hamlets which, at intervals, are scattered over the plains, and in the distance the blue line of the forest.  The chateau was a long, perfectly simple, white stone building.  When I first saw it, one bright November afternoon, I said to my husband as we drove up, “What a charming old wooden house!” which remark so