setting.  There is a comforting stir and whir about the great, bare, sociable dining-hall at Crawford’s or at the Grand Union, which causes a European table-d’hote utterly to pale and dwindle.  And there is a satisfying quiet, a self-respecting, ritualistic calm, in the frescoed salle-a-manger of the Schweizerhof, or of the Grand Hotel at Biarritz, which makes its American rival seem impetuous and unrestful, and even a trifle garish.  ’Tis hard to choose.  Man and mood both vary.  There is no parallel.  The two modes of dining are as wide apart as the countries and their characteristics, and each is, in the best sense, distinctly typical.

VI

There is music during the evening in the little park we passed, and the best of Biarritz assembles to enjoy the programme.  We charter chairs with the rest.  Tables go with the chairs without extra charge, waiters follow up the tables, and soon all the world is sipping its coffee or cordials, and listening to Zampa.  Outside, around the fence enclosing the little park, revolves an endless procession of the poorer people,—­thrifty folk who are here as earners, not spenders, and would not dream of melting their two sous into a chair.  Round the small enclosure they go, by couples or threes, like asteroids round the sun, staring with interest at the more aristocratic assemblage within,—­just as the family circle stares at the boxes.  And the music sings on pleasantly for all, this mild summer evening in Biarritz.

CHAPTER III.

BAYONNE, THE INVINCIBLE.

     “I am here on purpose to visit the sixteenth century; one makes a
     journey for the sake of changing not place but ideas.”

In the morning, a dashing equipage rolls up to the doorway of the Grand Hotel.  A “breack” is its Gallicized English name.  It has four white horses, with bells on the harness, and the driver is richly bedight in a scarlet-faced coat, blazing with buttons and silver lace; a black glazed hat, and very white duck trousers.  We ascend, the ladder is removed, the porter bows, his thanks, the whip signals, and we roll out of the court-yard for a six-mile drive northward to Bayonne.

We take the sea-road in going, following the bluff as it trends northward, and having dazzling views of blue sky and blue water.  There is a fresh, sweet, morning breeze, which exhilarates.  Truly here is the joy of travel!  Kilometre-stones pass, one after another, to the rear.  Still the road presses on, winding over the downs, or between long rows of pines and poplars standing even and equidistant for mile after mile.  The light-house at the end of the crescent beach comes nearer.  Few teams are met, and fewer travelers; for the main highway to Bayonne, which lies inland and by which we are to return, is shorter than this, and draws to itself the most of the traffic.