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In an instant, it was forcibly recalled to my mind, for Number One chauffeur, smelling strongly of the good red wine of Provence, came forward and offered me his arm. This was too much. "Please don't!" I stammered, in my confusion speaking English. "Ah, Mademoiselle est Anglaise!" the two others exclaimed, "Vive l'entente cordiale! We are Frenchmen. You are Italian. She belongs to our side."
At that time the Queen used to occupy herself much in fancy needle-works. Knowing, from arrangements, that I was every day in a certain part of the Tuileries, Her Majesty, when she heard the shout of La Brave Anglaise! immediately called the Princesse de Lamballe to know if she had sent me on any message.
Set them down anywhere on the face of the globe, under any conditions conceivable, and you could not surprise them; such was the impression. The British officers and even the British Tommies were blase, wearing the air of the 'semaine Anglaise', and the "five o'clock tea," as the French delight to call it. That these could have come direct from the purgatory of the trenches seemed unbelievable.
The heavy smell was replaced by the smell of aromatic vinegar, which Kitty with pouting lips and puffed-out, rosy cheeks was squirting through a little pipe. There was no dust visible anywhere, a rug was laid by the bedside. On the table stood medicine bottles and decanters tidily arranged, and the linen needed was folded up there, and Kitty's broderie anglaise.
But nobody seemed to think I was doing anything strange; one or two gentlemen glanced at me occasionally, but none stared obtrusively: I suppose if there was anything eccentric in the business, they accounted for it by this word "Anglaise!" Breakfast over, I must again move in what direction?
One person found her too tall, another discovered that she had too much embonpoint, and a third said her feet were much too large. A Frenchman, when appealed to for his opinion, declared "Elle est très-bien pour une Anglaise." I ought to add, that there was no English person present when he made this ungallant speech, which was repeated to me by a French lady, who laughed heartily at his notion.
Browning in Paris, he had accidentally seen an extract from 'Paracelsus'. This struck him so much that he procured the two volumes of the works and 'Christmas Eve', and discussed the whole in the 'Revue' as the second part of an essay entitled 'La Poesie Anglaise depuis Byron'. Mr.
He at once loved and hated to see her there, his new little "amie Anglaise!" "Are you going to leave the whole of it on this time?" whispered Anna. "Yes, I think I will. It's rather fun. After all, I'm only risking twenty francs!" whispered back Sylvia. And once more she won. "What a pity you didn't start playing with a hundred francs!
I maintained that it was; and feeling a momentary importance at the recollection of my country, added, in an assuring tone, "Et d'ailleurs je suis Anglaise et par consequent libre d'aller ou bon me semble.*" The man stared, but admitted my argument, and we passed on. *"Besides, I am a native of England, and, consequently, have a right to go where I please."
Then Anglaise gravely brought a battered box of crayon and told me I must make a picture somewhere on the wall or ceiling: all the pictures were made by visitors no visitor was ever exempt. I took the crayons and made a picture such as was never seen on land or sea. Having thus placed myself on record, I began to examine the other decorations.
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