[20] When we used to work at beads, the French girls were very fond of taking our horsehair, etc. If we discovered them they used to call us every name they could think of, 'Diable,' 'Menteuse,' etc. [21] The French girls seemed very ignorant; one of them (Mademoiselle Josephe) of thirteen or fourteen, on being asked what an active verb was, replied, 'Un verbe actif c'est un verbe passif.' Another, on being asked what map the map of Africa was, answered, 'C'est Amérique.' [22] A common refreshment in French parties; and a favourite medicine also (_eau sucrée_). [23] The French millers wear very large, curious hats. [24] We saw a monkey in the opposite balcony which played a number of tricks. [25] One Sunday, when papa was at Paris, he counted nineteen places of public amusement open; on another seventeen, besides many for the lower classes. [26] The milliners'shops are very ugly, but there are some very pretty things in the others, particularly little dolls' chairs, etc., of mother-of-pearl and gold, and flowers at the bottom. We saw some pretty clocks; also a snuffer dish and a pair of snuffers covered with flowers under glass. [27] The girls think of their dresses for weeks before. [28] They spoil them very much in _some_ things, but they are not near so _kind_ to them as the English. [29] I never felt anything but dull air in _France_; while we were at Versailles six French people killed themselves. [30] The baskets were _very_ pretty: they were ornamented with silk and muslin. [31] The fruit that we tasted in France (except the melons) was very bad. Their best cherries--_cerises anglaises_--were so hard one was obliged to chew them, their gooseberries were like blighted ones, and their pears and plums indifferent. (Grapes were not ripe.) [32] A Cumberland name for 'curds.'--EDITOR. [33] She happened to be very plain. [34] The French are _excessively_ great talkers. If one asks a question in the street, they tell such roundabout stories one can hardly get away. They never say they do not know a thing. We one day went in search of a Mr. Dyas; we enquired of nearly a dozen people the way; they each told us _different_, and not one _right_. The people in the house he lived in directed us to a different one. [35] There were several French _ladies_ with them, who, they said, gave the most fashionable parties in Versailles, and were very agreeable. These ladies were as much like ladies in their _appearance_ as servants. [36] I think this must be a mistake.--W. B. Indeed it is not.--M. B. [37] A _frotteur_ is a man that comes to clean the rooms; he fastens a small brush on to each foot and skates about the room till the boards or flags are polished. [38] An old-fashioned name for camellia.--EDITOR. [39] It was a young vineyard; there were plenty of _unripe_ grapes in the old ones, but spoiled by the weather. [40] It rained part of the time, so we were obliged to keep up our umbrellas.