of us suffered from boils. On examination, and in accordance with a hint from the doctor, an investigation showed that the cook, to save herself the trouble of lighting a fire, had brought hot water for our tea and coffee from the natural boiling spring, and this was the cause of our disorder.
We went on to Bagnières de Luchon, stayed there a short while, where my mother picked up strength, and then on to Foix and thence to Ax. In the meantime a Miss Mary Richardson, of Irish origin, had been engaged to act as nursery governess to the children. To her we all owed an uncertainty as to the right employment of shall and will.
At Ax, where the party arrived in the carriage, a crowd assembled. "Ils sont des comédiens!" was the exclamation; as no other foreigners save actors had ever previously shown there; and it was difficult for us to get through the interested and expectant crowd and reach our hotel. To the people of Ax, to their disappointment, our party gave no further entertainment than showing themselves scrambling among the rocks in quest of Alpine flowers.
To quote again one of my mother's letters: "After leaving Luchon, my dear husband bought the carriage in which we had travelled en vetturino our last journey from Bigorre, a nice, little German calash, chiefly that he might secure one easy in the movements for me, the whole of the journey. . . . We continued to spend a very happy week among the rocks with very little of that rich verdure and beautiful wood which characterizes almost all the other mountain scenes amongst the Pyrenees. Indeed, all the Department of the Pyrénées Orientales is one of this character. There is a coldness and barrenness which is nowhere seen in the Basses and the Hautes-Pyrénées." Thence to Carcassonne and to Montpellier.
It was whilst on the journey to Montpellier over the stony plain, with a hot sun smiting down on me, seated on the box beside my father, whilst the postillion rode one of the two horses, that I experienced a curious sensation. I saw, or fancied that I saw, a crowd of little imps or dwarfs surrounding the carriage, running by the side of the horses, and some leaping on to their backs. One was astride behind the post-boy. They were dressed in brown, with knee breeches, and wore little scarlet caps of
