Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 11, 2025
It was enough that you should have shared so liberally in the rains and portages of our voyage; that you should have had so hard a paddle to recover the derelict "Arethusa" on the flooded Oise: and that you should thenceforth have piloted a mere wreck of mankind to Origny Sainte-Benoîte and a supper so eagerly desired.
The lamps were lighted, and the salads were being made in Origny Sainte-Benoite by the river. Although we came late for dinner, the company at table treated us to sparkling wine. 'That is how we are in France, said one. 'Those who sit down with us are our friends. And the rest applauded. They were three altogether, and an odd trio to pass the Sunday with.
'Come back again! she cried; and all the others echoed her; and the hills about Origny repeated the words, 'Come back. But the river had us round an angle in a twinkling, and we were alone with the green trees and running water. Come back? There is no coming back, young ladies, on the impetuous stream of life.
If the English could only hear how they are spoken of abroad they might confine themselves for a while to remedying the fact; and perhaps even when that was done, give us fewer of their airs. The young ladies, the graces of Origny, were not present at our start, but when we got round to the second bridge, behold, it was black with sightseers!
At the age of about seventeen she was married to a Comte de Genlis, who had fallen in love with her on seeing her portrait. As his relatives refused to welcome the young girl, she was placed in the convent of Origny, where she remained until 1764, after which her husband took her to his brother's estate, where they lived happily for a short time.
This was a very different type of the workman-innkeeper from the bawling disputatious fellow at Origny. He also loved Paris, where he had worked as a decorative painter in his youth. There were such opportunities for self-instruction there, he said.
There was a very elegant young gentleman in a black coat, with a smattering of English, who led the talk at once to the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. And then there were three handsome girls from fifteen to twenty; and an old gentleman in a blouse, with no teeth to speak of, and a strong country accent. Quite the pick of Origny, I should suppose.
And thus, O graces of Origny, although the wandering fortune of my life should carry me back again to where you await death's whistle by the river, that will not be the old I who walks the street; and those wives and mothers, say, will those be you? There was never any mistake about the Oise, as a matter of fact. In these upper reaches it was still in a prodigious hurry for the sea.
"Sortez! sortez! sortez par la porte!" I do not know how it happened, but next moment we were out in the rain and darkness, and I was cursing before the carriage entry like a disappointed mendicant. Where were the boating men of Belgium? where the Judge and his good wines? and where the graces of Origny?
And thus, oh graces of Origny, although the wandering fortune of my life should carry me back again to where you await death's whistle by the river, that will not be the old I who walks the streets; and those wives and mothers, say, will those be you? Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge. Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking