Whilst employed at the park my servant had taken my baggage to my billet, so that on repairing thither I found Madame la Juge, _en habit de Dimanches_, already waiting at the door to receive me. A fine and handsome woman, perhaps turned of thirty, and possessing a degree of _embonpoint_ which, whilst it added dignity to her air, detracted nothing from the grace of her person. She received me with more than common politeness, with kindness and cordiality, which, as an intruder, I felt I had no right to expect, and, conducting me into the house, assured me that it should be her study to render my stay at St Gille as agreeable as possible, ushering me into an apartment destined for my use, and offering the assistance of her servants--in short, the whole house was at my disposal. All this was not mere compliment, for in good truth she kept her word to the very letter. I never experienced greater kindness, or more sincere hospitality, and under such circumstances soon felt myself perfectly at home in my neat lodgings. What a contrast was this to the gloomy billet I left in the morning in the silent, solitary Rue de Bruges! Here everything was light, airy, and cheerful. But I must describe my new home. The _apartment_ consisted of a saloon of about eighteen feet square, with a little cabinet or sleeping-room adjoining and opening from it. Both were as clean as it was possible to conceive anything could be, and the white walls perfectly immaculate. Furniture of the simplest kind--chairs of oak or walnut ranged along the walls, two tables covered with oil-cloth, neat but scanty window-curtains, with draperies and fringe, and a most brilliant stove, _en faïence_, ornamented with brass-work, standing out nearly in the middle of the floor; that floor of red tiles, or brick highly varnished, the coolness of which, in the present hot weather, was highly grateful. I have designated this room as light and airy, and truly it was so, for it was illuminated by no less than six windows. Three of these in the front commanded a pleasant view over the well-wooded and beautifully-cultivated country beyond the great Brussels road, which ran beneath them--the fields more resembling extensive gardens than anything else. As this part of the house, projected beyond the _porte cochère_, a window in the side afforded a peep up the road, terminated by the town of Dendermonde, which hence appeared embosomed in trees. Two fine acacias in front of the gateway overshadowed this with their delicate pensile foliage, and screened it from the hot rays of the afternoon sun. The remaining two windows in the back looked into a delicious and carefully-kept garden, divided as usual by those verdant hornbeam walls into different departments. Such was my saloon. My bed-room, if so it may be called, was equally neat and simple in its equipment: a low bedstead without curtains, bedding of humble materials, but so clean that the most fastidious could have