I had now another specimen of national manners. It was necessary to get our luggage through the custom-house. The consul recommended a _commissionnaire_ to help me. "You are not to be surprised," he said, laughing, as he went away, "if I send you one in petticoats." In a few minutes, sure enough, one of the _beau sexe_ presented herself. Her name was Desiree, and an abler negotiator was never employed. She scolded, coaxed, advised, wrangled, and uniformly triumphed. The officers were more civil, by daylight, than we had found them under the influence of the moon, and our business was soon effected. W---- had brought with him a spy-glass. It was old and of little value, but it was an heir-loom of the family. It came from the Hall at C----n, and had become historical for its service in detecting deer, in the lake, during the early years of the settlement. This glass had disappeared. No inquiry could recover it. "Send for Desiree," said the consul. Desiree came, received her orders, and in half an hour the glass was restored. There was an oversight in not getting a passport, when we were about to quit Havre. The office hours were over, and the steam-boat could not wait. "Were is Desiree?" Desiree was made acquainted with the difficulty, and the passport was obtained. "Desiree, ou est Desiree?" cried some one in the crowd, that had assembled to see the Camilla start for England, the day after our arrival. "Here is an Englishman who is too late to get his passport _vised_," said this person to Desiree, so near me that I heard it all; "the boat goes in ten minutes--what is to be done?"--"_Ma foi_--it is too late!" "Try, _ma bonne_--it's a pity he should lose his passage--_voici_." The Englishman gave his fee. Desiree looked about her, and then taking the idler by the arm, she hurried him through the crowd, this way and that way, ending by putting him aboard without any passport at all. "It is too late to get one," she said; "and they can but send you back." He passed undetected. France has a plenty of these managing females, though Desiree is one of the cleverest of them all. I understood this woman had passed a year or two in England, expressly to fit herself for her present occupation, by learning the language.