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CHAPTER VIII
PEASANT AND ARTISAN
From earliest youth I had been accustomed
to the trim and pleasing aspect of the
French peasant, but lived long in Paris without
ever having had occasion to examine this class
more closely than a walk in the country permits.
I chanced to summer one year in the Saintonge,
and friends made me acquainted there with an
excellent miller and his wife who dwelt upon
their lands. I published in the Speaker something
about these delightful people afterwards,
and I cannot do better than quote from that forgotten
source:
"In the Saintonge, as elsewhere, the local mood is ruled by politics, and private friendship gives way to public rivalry. I learnt all about these feuds from my friend the miller of La Pellouaille. Intellect was not his strong point, but there was a cheerful cynicism about him to lend flavour to his commonplaces. While others affected the heroic or patriotic, he was content to accommodate himself to circum-
