In passing through a small town one came suddenly on its gate and saw the wide-standing façade of the château facing across the terraces of the park. Inside there was a Gothic vestibule, and the rooms stretching into the wings were old-fashioned and interesting, some of them with old Chinese paper on the walls. On the rear side, towards the park, the ground fell away abruptly, so that the building seemed to stand very high, and one looked out over the tops of the trees of the forest. The living room was, strangely enough, at the top of the house, and was approached by a great double stairway with very old carved balustrades and paneling. Of still a different type was Ophem, the seat of the de Grunne family. The château was very quaint and pretty, an old monastery with a simple, vine-covered façade surrounding a little flower-bordered and parterred garden with a high balustraded wall at one side, shaded by overhanging trees. The front had been added at a later time and was quite rococo in style, with many heavy moldings. This looked out over a terrace with a bit of park sloping down to a lagoon. Flowers in formal beds and rows gave colour everywhere. Near by was a dear little chapel with a statue in a niche outside; we were told that the niche had been designed by the Comtesse de Flandre. After tea we set off for home, scooting down towards Wavre and Perwez, through the land of Brabant. From the broken, hilly country we dropped gradually back among the rolling fields once more, all aglow with their crops, through the tree-lined avenues of the Forêt de Soignes, and so into Brussels. The château life was not one of gaiety--in fact, I think perhaps most of us would have considered it rather dull. There was some riding on horseback, walking, and a little tennis, but on the whole not very much outdoor exercise. Some one has said that "they raised the habit of doing nothing in the open air to the level of a science." The chief interest of the men was shooting and hunting. On many of the properties the game was carefully preserved. When the season opened, château life became for the time quite gay, with _déjeuners de chasse_ and _dîners_ _de chasse_, lively reunions of the fashionable set. They hunted foxes and hares, and a few kept packs of hounds. Over the border in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, where some Belgians held property, the wild boar was occasionally hunted. As the Belgians are nearly all musical, the children of the family were taught to play various instruments, and the evenings were passed pleasantly enough, some member of the group singing while others played the piano, 'cello, or violin. In the Ardennes country the houses were often near enough for frequent calls and visits, made in the late afternoon when all would assemble round the tea table. The quiet days were rarely broken by even the smallest excitement. These families certainly passed from one extreme to the other during the early months of the war.