Well, I found a funny little carriage, with a funny old man who did not understand my _patois_ any better than I did his; but he understood a franc-piece. I had my guide-book, and I said _auberge_; and we came to the oddest, most outlandish, and old-fashioned establishment that ever escaped from one of Julia Nathalie woman's novels. And here I am. And the reason, my dear Mrs. Barthow, that I take to-day to write to you, you and the Colonel will now understand. You see it was only ten o'clock when I got here; then I went to walk, many _enfans terribles_ following respectfully; then I came home, and ate the funny refection; then I got a nap; then I went to walk again, and made a little sketch in the churchyard: and this time, one of the children brought up her mother, a funny Norman woman, in a delicious costume,--I have a sketch of another just like her,--and she dropped a courtesy, and in a very mild _patois_ said she hoped the children did not trouble madame. And I said, "Oh, no!" and found a sugar-plum for the child and showed my sketch to the woman; and she said she supposed madame was _Anglaise_. I said I was not _Anglaise_,--and here the story begins; for I said I was _Americaine_. And, do you know, her face lighted up as if I had said I was St. Gulda, or St. Hilda, or any of their Northmen Saints. "Americaine! est-il possible? Jeannette, Gertrude, faites vos reverences. Madame est Americaine." And, sure enough, they all dropped preternatural courtesies. And then the most eager enthusiasm; how fond they all were of _les Americaines_, but how no _Americaines_ had ever come before! And was madame at the Three Cygnets? And might she and her son and her husband call to see madame at the Three Cygnets? And might she bring a little _etrenne_ to madame? And I know not what beside. I was very glad the national reputation had gone so far. I really wished I were Charles Sumner (pardon me, dear Agnes), that I might properly receive the delegation. But I said, "Oh, certainly!" and, as it grew dark, with my admiring _cortege_ whispering now to the street full of admirers that madame was _Americaine_, I returned to the Three Cygnets.