Had I been a
_Procureur de la Republique_ the law could not have been broken in a more
solicitous manner than it was in my behoof. Not only did I have gudgeons,
_en temps prohibe_, but also partridge. It was not until the bones were
carried out that I felt that I had missed an excellent opportunity of
setting a good example by declining to eat partridge in the month of June.
I must have been put into the best bedroom, for among other works of art
which it contained was a bridal wreath of orange-blossoms under a glass.
I surmised that when it decked the head of my hostess, her form would not
have taken up so much room in the kitchen as when I saw it downstairs,
passing with a slow and dignified movement in the midst of the saucepans
and platters. I have often slept in rooms where there have been bridal
orange-blossoms under glass. They always interest me, just as the faded
family photographs do which so frequently deck the walls of the same room.
They get me on the lines of thought or sentiment which make us enter when
we are by ourselves into all that is human.
The next morning, after seeing the church--a Romanesque and Gothic
structure of considerable beauty--I returned to the Dronne, and, after
crossing it, continued upon the road eastward until I saw the picturesque
ruins of the Chateau de Marouette upon a hill above me.
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