In conclusion I must do justice to the extreme courtesy of German railway and other officials. Many employés of railways and post offices--all, be it remembered, Government officials--do not speak any French at all, especially in out-of-the-way places. At the same time, all officials, down to the rural postman, will do their very best to help out French-speaking strangers with their own scant vocabulary of French words. My Alsatian hosts, one and all, I found quite ready to do justice to the authorities and their representatives, but, as I have insisted upon before, an insuperable barrier, the fathomless gulf created by injustice, exists between conquerors and conquered. And only last year dining with my hosts of Germanised Lorraine in Paris, I asked them if in this respect matters had changed for the better. The answer I received was categoric--“Nothing is changed since your visit to us. French and Germans remain apart as before.” “East of Paris” has led me somewhat farther than I intended, but to a lover of France, no less than to a French heart, France beyond the Vosges is France still! THE END. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of East of Paris, by Matilda Betham-Edwards