CORRESPONDENCE.

A LAZY JOURNEY.—III.

YES; it was a very lazy journey, for Mrs. Balbus and I thoroughly fulfilled our plan. We scarcely changed our where- abouts half-a-dozen times in the month's holiday ; yet we saw much, and learned more. We dawdled away days in odd walled towns, voted dreary and impossible by the flying tourist ; made friendly acquaintance with each nook and corner, missing, no doubt, just the things we ought to have seen, from absence of a guide-book; and sowed the seeds of new and. pleasant friendships, which will bear happy fruit, if so God will ; spent much of our time and most of our money in that curious and humiliating process called eating and drinking, which, wisely cultivated, puts enjoyment into everything, and neglected, takes it out; read every morning in the newspaper that" ii est probable que les averses vont continuer," and found out every evening that it was strictly true ; looked ruefully at our summer clothes, which vindicated their absolute useless- ness; yet enjoyed ourselves very simply and thoroughly, and realised that Idleness, rightly apprehended, is the root of all good. Ville-aux-Abbayes is a very capital for idleness, and so we found it. Foremost among its attractions would I chronicle M. and Madame Marie, of the little " Spanish Hotel." For having fallen foul of two hotel-keepers, may I not wish well to another P How much of our time we spent in their little office, mutually instructing each other in the use of our several tongues, while Madame and Mrs. Balbus made experiments in caps and. improvisations in lace, and I helped Mademoiselle ,to pull the stalks off the strawberries, I do not know. They were all "at little cares" for Mrs. Balbus, who indeed has a knack of her own of winning everybody to that way of thiuking, and received presents from those kindly Terre-follese, wherever she went, which make up quite a little nosegay of pleasant memories. One lady would.:throw a piece of soft lace round her shoulders ; another would fix a tortoise-shell comb in her hair ; and even a wandering doctor, after two tables d'hote of talk, would rush out and procure for her a special luxury of the toilette known only to the initiated, which I am forbidden, under grave feminine penalties, more especially to define. Not for me, indeed, " Veneris sacrum vulgare arcanum." I should be unworthy of my position, if I transgressed. As for M. and Madame Marie, they were the friendliest of hosts. They filled Mrs. Balbus's room with the fragrant roses of Ciderland, and poured its generosity of fruit into her lap when she came down in the morn- ing. Personally, I met with greater appreciation than ever before fell to my lot upon my travels. My Terrefollese was voted quite. equal to that of any native, and was indeed under much requi- sition to interpret between Mrs. Balbus and her many friends. She talked Terrefollese with a will, and even promises to be a past scholar in time; but she had at this period a knack of begin- ning every sentence indifferently with " J'avais," and then appealing to me to learn what she meant to say. But I had my reward, in the marked manner in which my neighbourhood and my conversation were cultivated at the tables d'hôte and else- where, which was indeed a just source of pride to Mrs. Balbus. "Tom," she said, "it is delightful to find you so appreciated on the Continent." I replied gravely, " 'Twas ever thus, from childhood's hour." Mrs. Balbus, I should add, passes for a very pretty woman, and certainly has a gift of dress which is pleasant to look and think upon, being one of those natural turns of mind which is independent of the milliner and the length of her bill, and is regrettably rare among the ladies of Grumble Island.

The Doctor I have spoken of was a pleasant discovery, one of the kind that the traveller is apt to make, if he keeps his mouth and ears open, and refrains from presenting to the foreigner the combative aspect—defensive rather than aggressive, defentio no provocatio—so dear to the Grumble-Islander abroad. The doctor looked at Mrs. Balbus as if he should like to open con- versation, then at me as if he supposed I should resent it ; upon which hint I spake, and we talked of many men and many things in the two languages combined, the doctor speaking ours fluently and well, and having much to tell and to ask. He had been a sufferer from " Imperialism "--good my fellow- countrymen—one who by hard work had made a comfortable fortune, and was no longer young when that same Imperial spirit brought the Devil of War down upon Belle-Etoile, and made a havoc among fortunes, and loves, and lives of which we shall not know. Let us be thankful, at least, that the feebler, but discreeter copyist, who is for Imperialising Grumble Island, keeps his Devil for the distance, thus far. It is safer, no doubt, but I fail to see that it is the less wicked. Well, the doctor's fortune was lost ; and when, under the cruel pressure of that cruel time, the minds and sense of men gave way, and the popu- lace, who had suffered so much for the Idea, rose to the top of the crumbling edifice for a while, he lost both wife and children. Not by death, happily, but, as it seemed, with small hope. He was able to send them to the charge of his wife's father, for they could live no more with him. "My dear," he said to her, who would have stayed to starve with him, "God will bring us the good life again, if we trust him. And he will make up for what we have lost, in his own time and way. But we have to do our duty to our children, if we are to deserve his care. You must go." And she obeyed him, and went. I have seen, as it hap- pened, on this last tour of mine, much of the married life of Terre-folio; and of all the popular libels I wot of, I think the prevalent theory upon that head one of the greatest. Yet we islanders are bold enough to repeat it, with the records of our brutal Divorce Court forcing themselves upon our knowledge every day, with impudent publicity. I shrink at the sight of our daily newspapers when I come home from abroad, and am ashamed of them when I see them there. Yet even for this distorted picture of Terre-follese life, it is their makers of " literature " who are responsible, the brotherhood of various forms of that "art le plus parfaitement grossier " of which I wrote in my last paper. There will be a heavy reckoning some day somewhere, I think, for the modern Sir Pandarus of the pen, who is choking all the fields of writing more and more,—of all the trusts to man, certainly the most sacred, of all perhaps the worst abused. It is an odd kind of knowledge which education is diffusing through the mouths of its most influential professors.

The people condemned our doctor to be shot, for refusing to do something for them, it is not clear what. It is difficult to

imagine a much stranger position than that of a man placed thus between two fires, to choose between the Geistlanders' bayonet and his own countrymen's gun, after doing no earthly wrong to anybody. Yet the rulers of Geistland pray ; and hold, I suppose, that Divine Right sanctions everything. So held the populace,—with about the same reason. The chief of

Geistland has, at all events, so much of the very modest cre- dentials of the first king, Saul, that he is as "tall a man as any in

Illyria." The doctor had a Geistland nurse, who dressed him poorly, played the part of mistress, and brought him safe through the lines. He made his way to Ville-aux-Abbayes ; for it was in the Ciderlands that the tide of invasion was stayed, and many a grateful votive tablet of the poor, anxious people, to "Our Lady of Pity," whose worship, as a living and potent reality—the worship of her whom, in her own happy words, all generations were to call "blessed "—it is a bold thing for the- strictest " Protester " altogether to condemn, stands in the churches to record it. I would rather have that gentle spirit for a friend than an alien, I think, when love and home are as powerless to bar the way of the inevitable visitant as the "garde qui veille aux barrieres du Louvre." This is superstition, I know, _but then I never could succeed in becoming well informed,—about the world beyond, especially.

At Ville-aux-Abbayes the Doctor, penniless and proepectless, had one friend, a. professional brother, who exerted himself ea well in his behalf that they afterwards formed a partnership, and four times a year, now that the good times have come back again and the firm faith has been rewarded, does the star from Belle-Etoile shine on Ville-aux-Abbayes, and the skilful surgeon,.

—for he is a man of skill and fame—reap a harvest of francs for the wife and bairns, who make his home happy for him again.

He was dull at first, he said, in the sad times, alone at Ville-aux-

Abbayes, for his friend was a busy man ; but he found the kindness of a brother and sister, he told me very simply, in M.

and Madame Marie, to whom for his sake, as for our own, Mrs.

Balbus and I" wish all sorts of good and prosperity. Times are hard, and the servants of the day give a good deal of trouble,.

always giving warning to poor little Madam when the bathing-

season comes round, in order that they may have their share in the pickings and stealings of Trouvilain et Cie., which are so in-

vitingly near. The Hotel d'Espagne—why should I not give it its right name P—stands in the main street on your right, just be- fore you reach the old church and place of St. Pierre, and thence turn to your right for the "Ladies' Abbey ;" and long may M. and Madame Marie work and flourish, in the little parlour, to "witness if I lie."

The travelling Doctor was interested in the present aspect of politics in Grumble Island, and a good deal amused by it.

"Imperialism is a harmless, though expensive amusement, as long as you play at it," he said ; "but take care. You will be fools indeed if you allow it to become serious, and let such a past as yours go. It is all very well, when you begin a down- ward course, to think you can stop when you like. You don't want barricades, do you P" "Barricades !" I said, with a certain

shamefaced lingering of the old civia Rovianue, "in our island ?

Impossible !" "In the Grumble Island of to-day, yes ; and as I hope, in the Terrefolle of to-day ; but not in the Terrefolle of yesterday, nor, perhaps, in the Grumble Island of to-morrow.

We are fighting to the light, and you choose that moment to pull backwards. Our old clothes will take a good deal of handling, before they fit you ; but these new tailors of yours may do the mischief, if you employ them long enough." "The chief tailor is a parlous dog," I said ; "but do you know, doctor, I am not

sure that I am very much afraid of him P" "Sir Machiavel Man- chanson," ho answered ; "he is a vieux farceur." Such, I am sorry to say, was the light expression that doctor employed.. Contemporary foreign opinion, it has been said, is the verdict of posterity. "Your other tailors," he added, "do not seem to go. for much." "They are remarkable men, nevertheless," I said,. "and will perhaps be remembered in history as none have been since the days of one Addington, whom men called The Doctor ; ' no offence. The Marquess of Longbow writes slashing articles to order for the Cabinet, instead of the Latter-day Review;: but the matter and manner are unaltered. Sir Strafford Dove- cote coos away the Constitution with many gentle apologies,. but as a leader of men is something inadequate. Lord Bull de Began drowns what he is pleased to call his conscience by shouting about it; and his part in the Ministerial tragi-comedy, like the lion's in Pyramus and Thisbe,' you may "do extempore ; for it's nothing but roaring." Altogether, I cannot help hoping,.

scarcely the stuff of which barricades and revolutions are made. They would like to barricade their offices, so as not to be turned out of them, but I do not know that their ambition soars much higher. Still, I wish I knew how we are to get rid of them." "You should' begin," said the doctor, "by putting more backbone into your Opposition. Your Marquess of Half- heartington is a man of no measures, and lacks the spirit of Sir Hector de Troy, who was altogether too good for you." "I am," I said, "very much inclined to agree with you." Tom BAutrs.