Brantwood, April 2, 1873.
It is a bright morning, the first entirely clear one I have seen for
months; such, indeed, as one used to see, before England was civilized
into a blacksmith's shop, often enough in the sweet spring-time; and
as, perhaps, our children's children may see often enough again, when
their coals are burnt out, and they begin to understand that coals are
not the source of all power Divine and human. In the meantime as I say,
it is months since I saw the sky, except through smoke, or the strange
darkness brought by blighting wind (viii. 3), and if such weather as
this is to last, I shall begin to congratulate myself, as the 'Daily
News' does its readers, on the "exceptionally high price of coal,"
indicating a most satisfactory state of things, it appears, for the
general wealth of the country, for, says that well-informed journal,
on March 3rd, 1873, "The net result of the exceptionally high price
of coal is in substance this, that the coal owners and workers obtain
an unusually large share in the distribution of the gross produce of
the community, and the real capital of the community is increased!"
This great and beautiful principle must of course apply to a rise
in price in all other articles, as well as in coals. Accordingly,
whenever you see the announcement in any shops, or by any advertising
firm, that you can get something there cheaper than usual, remember,
the capital of the community is being diminished; and whenever you
have reason to think that anybody has charged you threepence for
a twopenny article, remember that, according to the 'Daily News,'
"the real capital of the community is increased." And as I believe
you may be generally certain, in the present state of trade, of being
charged even as much as twenty-seven pence for a twopenny article, the
capital of the community must be increasing very fast indeed. Holding
these enlightened views on the subject of the prices of things, the
'Daily News' cannot be expected to stoop to any consideration of their
uses. But there is another "net result" of the high price of coal,
besides the increase of the capital of the community, and a result
which is more immediately your affair, namely, that a good many of
you will die of cold. It may console you to reflect that a great many
rich people will at least feel chilly, in economical drawing-rooms
of state, and in ill-aired houses, rawly built on raw ground, and
already mouldy for want of fires, though under a blackened sky.
What a pestilence of them, and unseemly plague of builders' work--as
if the bricks of Egypt had multiplied like its lice, and alighted
like its locusts--has fallen on the suburbs of loathsome London!
The road from the village of Shirley, near Addington, where my father
and mother are buried, to the house they lived in when I was four
years old, lay, at that time, through a quite secluded district of
field and wood, traversed here and there by winding lanes, and by one
or two smooth mail-coach roads, beside which, at intervals of a mile
or two, stood some gentleman's house, with its lawn, gardens, offices,
and attached fields, indicating a country life of long continuance
and quiet respectability. Except such an one here and there, one saw
no dwellings above the size of cottages or small farmsteads; these,
wood-built usually, and thatched, their porches embroidered with
honeysuckle, and their gardens with daisies, their doors mostly ajar,
or with a half one shut to keep in the children, and a bricked or tiled
footway from it to the wicket gate,--all neatly kept, and vivid with
a sense of the quiet energies of their contented tenants,--made the
lane-turnings cheerful, and gleamed in half-hidden clusters beneath
the slopes of the woodlands at Sydenham and Penge. There were no signs
of distress, of effort, or of change; many of enjoyment, and not a
few of wealth beyond the daily needs of life. That same district is
now covered by, literally, many thousands of houses built within the
last ten years, of rotten brick, with various iron devices to hold
it together. They, every one, have a drawing-room and dining-room,
transparent from back to front, so that from the road one sees the
people's heads inside, clear against the light. They have a second
story of bedrooms, and an underground one of kitchen. They are fastened
in a Siamese-twin manner together by their sides, and each couple has
a Greek or Gothic portico shared between them, with magnificent steps,
and highly ornamented capitals. Attached to every double block are
exactly similar double parallelograms of garden, laid out in new gravel
and scanty turf, on the model of the pleasure grounds in the Crystal
Palace, and enclosed by high, thin, and pale brick walls. The gardens
in front are fenced from the road with an immense weight of cast iron,
and entered between two square gate-posts, with projecting stucco
cornices, bearing the information that the eligible residence within
is Mortimer House or Montague Villa. On the other side of the road,
which is laid freshly down with large flints, and is deep at the sides
in ruts of yellow mud, one sees Burleigh House, or Devonshire Villa,
still to let, and getting leprous in patches all over the fronts.
Think what the real state of life is, for the people who are
content to pass it in such places; and what the people themselves
must be. Of the men, their wives, and children, who live in any
of those houses, probably not the fifth part are possessed of one
common manly or womanly skill, knowledge, or means of happiness. The
men can indeed write, and cast accounts, and go to town every day to
get their living by doing so; the women and children can perhaps read
story-books, dance in a vulgar manner, and play on the piano with dull
dexterities for exhibition; but not a member of the whole family can,
in general, cook, sweep, knock in a nail, drive a stake, or spin a
thread. They are still less capable of finer work. They know nothing
of painting, sculpture, or architecture; of science, inaccurately,
as much as may more or less account to them for Mr. Pepper's ghost,
and make them disbelieve in the existence of any other ghost but that,
particularly the Holy One: of books, they read 'Macmillan's Magazine'
on week days, and 'Good Words' on Sundays, and are entirely ignorant
of all the standard literature belonging to their own country, or
to any other. They never think of taking a walk, and, the roads for
six miles round them being ancle deep in mud and flints, they could
not if they would. They cannot enjoy their gardens, for they have
neither sense nor strength enough to work in them. The women and
girls have no pleasures but in calling on each other in false hair,
cheap dresses of gaudy stuffs, machine made, and high-heeled boots,
of which the pattern was set to them by Parisian prostitutes of the
lowest order: the men have no faculty beyond that of cheating in
business; no pleasures but in smoking or eating; and no ideas, nor
any capacity of forming ideas, of anything that has yet been done of
great, or seen of good, in this world.
That is the typical condition of five-sixths, at least, of the "rising"
middle classes about London--the lodgers in those damp shells of
brick, which one cannot say they inhabit, nor call their "houses;"
nor "their's" indeed, in any sense; but packing-cases in which
they are temporarily stored, for bad use. Put the things on wheels
(it is already done in America, but you must build them stronger
first), and they are mere railway vans of brick, thrust in rows on
the siding; vans full of monkeys that have lost the use of their
legs. The baboons in Regent's Park--with Mr. Darwin's pardon--are of
another species; a less passive, and infinitely wittier one. Here,
behold, you have a group of gregarious creatures that cannot climb,
and are entirely imitative, not as the apes, occasionally, for the
humour of it, but all their lives long; the builders trying to build
as Christians did once, though now swindling on every brick they lay;
and the lodgers to live like the Duke of Devonshire, on the salaries
of railroad clerks. Lodgers, do I say! Scarcely even that. Many a
cottage, lodged in but for a year or two, has been made a true home,
for that span of the owner's life. In my next letter but one, I hope
to give you some abstract of the man's life whose testimony I want
you to compare with that of Dickens, as to the positions of Master
and Servant: meantime compare with what you may see of these railroad
homes, this incidental notice by him of his first one:
"When we approached that village (Lasswade), Scott, who had laid hold
of my arm, turned along the road in a direction not leading to the
place where the carriage was to meet us. After walking some minutes
towards Edinburgh, I suggested that we were losing the scenery of
the Esk, and, besides, had Dalkeith Palace yet to see.
"'Yes,' said he, 'and I have been bringing you where there is little
enough to be seen, only that Scotch cottage (one by the roadside,
with a small garth); but, though not worth looking at, I could not
pass it. It was our first country house when newly married, and many
a contrivance we had to make it comfortable. I made a dining-table
for it with my own hands. Look at these two miserable willow trees
on either side the gate into the enclosure; they are tied together at
the top to be an arch, and a cross made of two sticks over them is not
yet decayed. To be sure, it is not much of a lion to show a stranger;
but I wanted to see it again myself, for I assure you that after I
had constructed it, mamma (Mrs. Scott) and I both of us thought it
so fine, we turned out to see it by moonlight, and walked backwards
from it to the cottage door, in admiration of our own magnificence
and its picturesque effect. I did want to see if it was still there.'"
I had scarcely looked out this passage for you, when I received a
letter from the friend who sent me the penny cookery book, incidentally
telling me of the breaking up of a real home. I have obtained her
leave to let you read part of it. It will come with no disadvantage,
even after Scott's recording as it does the same kind of simple
and natural life, now passing so fast away. The same life, and also
in the district which, henceforward, I mean to call "Sir Walter's
Land"; definable as the entire breadth of Scots and English ground
from sea to sea, coast and isle included, between Schehallien on the
north, and Ingleborough on the south, (I have my reasons, though some
readers may doubt them, for fixing the limit south of Skye, and north
of Ashby-de-la-Zouche.) Within this district, then, but I shall not
say in what part of it, the home my friend speaks of stood. In many
respects it was like the "Fair-ladies" in "Red Gauntlet"; as near the
coast, as secluded, and in the same kind of country; still more like,
in its mistress's simple and loyal beneficence. Therefore, because
I do not like leaving a blank for its name, I put "Fair-ladies" for
it in the letter, of which the part I wish you to see begins thus:--
"Please let me say one practical thing. In no cottage is there a
possibility of roasting more than a pound of meat, if any; and a
piece of roast beef, such as you or I understand by the word, costs
ten shillings or twelve, and is not meant for artisans. I never have
it in this house now, except when it is full. I have a much sadder
example of the changes wrought by modern wages and extravagance. Miss
----, who had her house and land for her home-farm expenses (or rather
produce), and about ---- hundred a year; who entertained for years all
her women and children acquaintances; trained a dozen young servants
in a year, and was a blessing to the country for miles round; writes
me word yesterday that she hopes and intreats that we will go this
summer to Fair-ladies, as it is the last. She says the provisions
are double the price they used to be--the wages also--and she cannot
even work her farm as she used to do; the men want beer instead of
milk, and won't do half they used to do; so she must give it up,
and let the place, and come and live by me or some one to comfort
her, and Fair-ladies will know her no more. I am so sorry, because I
think it such a loss to the wretched people who drive her away. Our
weekly bills are double what they used to be, yet every servant asks
higher wages each time I engage one; and as to the poor people in
the village, they are not a bit better off--they eat more, and drink
more, and learn to think less of religion and all that is good. One
thing I see very clearly, that, as the keeping of Sunday is being
swept away, so is their day of rest going with it. Of course if no
one goes to worship God one day more than another, [20] what is the
sense of talking about the Sabbath? If all the railway servants, and
all the post-office, and all the museum and art-collection servants,
and all the refreshment places, and other sorts of amusement, servants
are to work on Sunday, why on earth should not the artisans, who are
as selfish and irreligious as any one? No! directly I find every one
else is at work, I shall insist on the baker and the butcher calling
for orders as usual. (Quite right, my dear.) The result of enormous
wages will be that I rely more on my own boys for carpentering, and
on preserved food, and the cook and butcher will soon be dismissed."
My poor little darling, rely on your own boys for carpentering by all
means; and grease be to their elbows--but you shall have something
better to rely on than potted crocodile, in old England, yet,--please
the pixies, and pigs, and St. George, and St. Anthony.
Nay, we will have also a blue-aproned butcher or two still, to call
for orders; they are not yet extinct. We have not even reached the
preparatory phase of steam-butcher-boys, riding from Buxton for
orders to Bakewell, and from Bakewell for orders to Buxton; and
paying dividends to a Steam-Butcher's-boy-Company. Not extinct yet,
and a kindly race, for the most part. "He told me," (part of another
friend's letter, speaking of his butcher,) "his sow had fourteen pigs,
and could only rear twelve, the other two, he said, he was feeding
with a spoon. I never could bear, he said, to kill a young animal
because he was one too many." Yes; that is all very well when it's
a pig; but if it be--Wait a minute;--I must go back to Fair-ladies,
before I finish my sentence.
For note very closely what the actual facts are in this short letter
from an English housewife.
She in the south, and the mistress of Fair-ladies in the north, both
find "their weekly bills double what they used to be;" that is to say,
they are as poor again as they were, and they have to pay higher wages,
of course, for now all wages buy so much less. I have too long,
perhaps, put questions to you which I knew you could not answer,
partly in the hope of at least making you think, and partly because
I knew you would not believe the true answer, if I gave it. But,
whether you believe me or not, I must explain the meaning of this to
you at once. The weekly bills are double, because the greater part
of the labour of the people of England is spent unproductively;
that is to say, in producing iron plates, iron guns, gunpowder,
infernal machines, infernal fortresses floating about, infernal
fortresses standing still, infernal means of mischievous locomotion,
infernal lawsuits, infernal parliamentary elocution, infernal beer,
and infernal gazettes, magazines, statues, and pictures. Calculate the
labour spent in producing these infernal articles annually, and put
against it the labour spent in producing food! The only wonder is,
that the weekly bills are not tenfold instead of double. For this
poor housewife, mind you, cannot feed her children with any one, or
any quantity, of these infernal articles. Children can only be fed
with divine articles. Their mother can indeed get to London cheap,
but she has no business there; she can buy all the morning's news for
a halfpenny, but she has no concern with them; she can see Gustave
Doré's pictures (and she had better see the devil), for a shilling;
she can be carried through any quantity of filthy streets on a tramway
for threepence; but it is as much as her life's worth to walk in them,
or as her modesty's worth to look into a print shop in them. Nay,
let her have but to go on foot a quarter of a mile in the West End,
she dares not take her purse in her pocket, nor let her little dog
follow her. These are her privileges and facilities, in the capital
of civilization. But none of these will bring meat or flour into her
own village. Far the contrary! The sheep and corn which the fields
of her village produce are carried away from it to feed the makers
of Armstrong guns. And her weekly bills are double.
But you, forsooth, you think, with your beer for milk, are better
off. Read pages 12 to 14 of my second letter over again. And now
observe farther:--
The one first and absolute question of all economy is--What are you
making? Are you making Hell's articles, or Heaven's?--gunpowder,
or corn?
There is no question whether you are to have work or not. The question
is, what work. This poor housewife's mutton and corn are given you
to eat. Good. Now, if you, with your day's work, produce for her,
and send to her, spices, or tea, or rice, or maize, or figs, or any
other good thing,--that is true and beneficent trade. But if you take
her mutton and corn from her, and send her back an Armstrong gun, what
can she make of that? But you can't grow figs and spices in England,
you say? No, certainly, and therefore means of transit for produce in
England are little necessary. Let my poor housewife keep her sheep in
her near fields, and do you--keep sheep at Newcastle--and the weekly
bills will not rise. But you forge iron at Newcastle; then you build
an embankment from Newcastle to my friend's village, whereupon you
take her sheep from her, suffocating half of them on the way; and
you send her an Armstrong gun back; or, perhaps not even to her,
but to somebody who can fire it down your own throats, you jolterheads.
No matter, you say, in the meantime, we eat more, and drink more;
the housewife herself allows that. Yes, I have just told you, her
corn and sheep all are sent to you. But how about other people? I
will finish my sentence now, paused in above. It is all very well to
bring up creatures with a spoon, when they are one or two too many,
if they are useful things like pigs. But how if they be useless
things like young ladies? You don't want any wives, I understand,
now, till you are forty-five; what in the world will you do with your
girls? Bring them up with a spoon, to that enchanting age?
"The girls may shift for themselves." Yes,--they may, certainly. Here
is a picture of some of them, as given by the 'Telegraph' of March
18th, of the present year, under Lord Derby's new code of civilization,
endeavouring to fulfil Mr. John Stuart Mill's wishes, and procure
some more lucrative occupation than that of nursing the baby:--
"After all the discussions about woman's sphere and woman's rights,
and the advisability of doing something to redress the inequality of
position against which the fair sex, by the medium of many champions,
so loudly protests and so constantly struggles, it is not satisfactory
to be told what happened at Cannon-row two days last week. It had
been announced that the Civil Service Commissioners would receive
applications personally from candidates for eleven vacancies in the
metropolitan post-offices, and in answer to this notice, about 2,000
young women made their appearance. The building, the courtyard, and the
street were blocked by a dense throng of fair applicants; locomotion
was impossible, even with the help of policemen; windows were thrown
up to view the sight, as if a procession had been passing that way;
traffic was obstructed, and nothing could be done for hours. We
understand, indeed, that the published accounts by no means do
justice to the scene. Many of the applicants, it appears, were girls
of the highest respectability and of unusually good social position,
including daughters of clergymen and professional men, well connected,
well educated, tenderly nurtured; but nevertheless, driven by the res
angustæ which have caused many a heart-break, and scattered the members
of many a home to seek for the means of independent support. The crowd,
the agitation, the anxiety, the fatigue, proved too much for many of
those who attended; several fainted away; others went into violent
hysterics; others, despairing of success, remained just long enough
to be utterly worn out, and then crept off, showing such traces of
mental anguish as we are accustomed to associate with the most painful
bereavements. In the present case, it is stated, the Commissioners
examined over 1,000 candidates for the eleven vacancies. This seems
a sad waste of power on both sides, when, in all probability, the
first score supplied the requisite number of qualified aspirants."
Yes, my pets, I am tired of talking to these workmen, who never
answer a word; I will try you now--for a letter or two--but I beg
your pardon for calling you pets,--my "qualified aspirants" I mean
(Alas! time was when the qualified aspiration was on the bachelor's
side). Here you have got all you want, I hope!--liberty enough,
it seems--if only the courtyard were bigger; equality enough--no
distinction made between young ladies of the highest, or the lowest,
respectability; rights of women generally claimed, you perceive;
and obtained without opposition from absurdly religious, moral, or
chivalric persons. You have got no God, now, to bid you do anything
you don't like; no husbands, to insist on having their own way--(and
much of it they got, in the old times--didn't they?)--no pain nor
peril of childbirth;--no bringing up of tiresome brats. Here is an
entirely scientific occupation for you! Such a beautiful invention
this of Mr. Wheatstone's! and I hope you all understand the relations
of positive and negative electricity. Now you may "communicate
intelligence" by telegraph. Those wretched girls that used to write
love-letters, of which their foolish lovers would count the words,
and sometimes be thankful for--less than twenty--how they would envy
you if they knew. Only the worst is, that this beautiful invention
of Mr. Wheatstone's for talking miles off, won't feed people in the
long run, my dears, any more than the old invention of the tongue,
for talking near, and you'll soon begin to think that was not so
bad a one, after all. But you can't live by talking, though you
talk in the scientificalest of manners, and to the other side of
the world. All the telegraph wire over the earth and under the sea,
will not do so much for you, my poor little qualified aspirants,
as one strong needle with thimble and thread.
You do sometimes read a novel still, don't you, my scientific dears? I
wish I could write one; but I can't; and George Eliot always makes
them end so wretchedly that they're worse than none--so she's no good,
neither. I must even translate a foreign novelette or nouvelette,
which is to my purpose, next month; meantime I have chanced on a
little true story, in the journal of an Englishman, travelling,
before the Revolution, in France, which shows you something of the
temper of the poor unscientific girls of that day. Here are first,
however, a little picture or two which he gives in the streets of
Paris, and which I want all my readers to see; they mark, what most
Englishmen do not know, that the beginning of the French Revolution,
with what of good or evil it had, was in English, not French, notions
of "justice" and "liberty." The writer is travelling with a friend,
Mr. B----, who is of the Liberal school, and, "He and I went this
forenoon to a review of the foot-guards, by Marshal Biron. There was
a crowd, and we could with difficulty get within the circle, so as
to see conveniently. An old officer of high rank touched some people
who stood before us, saying, 'Ces deux Messieurs sont des étrangers;'
upon which they immediately made way, and allowed us to pass. 'Don't
you think that was very obliging?' said I. 'Yes,' answered he;
'but by heavens, it was very unjust.'
"We returned by the Boulevards, where crowds of citizens, in their
holiday dresses, were making merry; the young dancing cotillons,
the old beating time to the music, and applauding the dancers. 'These
people seem very happy,' said I. 'Happy!' exclaimed B----; 'if they
had common sense, or reflection, they would be miserable.' 'Why
so?' 'Could not the minister,' answered he, 'pick out half-a-dozen of
them if he pleased, and clap them into the Bicêtre?' 'That is true,
indeed,' said I; 'that is a catastrophe which, to be sure, may very
probably happen, and yet I thought no more of it than they.'
"We met, a few days after he arrived, at a French house where we
had been both invited to dinner. There was an old lady of quality
present, next to whom a young officer was seated, who paid her the
utmost attention. He helped her to the dishes she liked, filled her
glass with wine or water, and addressed his discourse particularly
to her. 'What a fool,' says B----, 'does that young fellow make of
the poor old woman! if she were my mother, d--n me, if I would not
call him to an account for it.'
"Though B---- understands French, and speaks it better than most
Englishmen, he had no relish for the conversation, soon left the
company, and has refused all invitations to dinner ever since. He
generally finds some of our countrymen, who dine and pass the evening
with him at the Parc Royal.
"After the review this day, we continued together, and being
both disengaged, I proposed, by way of variety, to dine at the
public ordinary of the Hôtel de Bourbon. He did not like this
much at first. 'I shall be teased,' says he, 'with their confounded
ceremony;' but on my observing that we could not expect much ceremony
or politeness at a public ordinary, he agreed to go.
"Our entertainment turned out different, however, from my expectations
and his wishes. A marked attention was paid us the moment we entered;
everybody seemed inclined to accommodate us with the best places. They
helped us first, and all the company seemed ready to sacrifice every
convenience and distinction to the strangers; for, next to that of
a lady, the most respected character at Paris is that of a stranger.
"After dinner, B---- and I walked into the gardens of the Palais Royal.
"'There was nothing real in all the fuss those people made about us,'
says he.
"'I can't help thinking it something,' said I, 'to be treated with
civility and apparent kindness in a foreign country, by strangers
who know nothing about us, but that we are Englishmen, and often
their enemies.'"
So much for the behaviour of old Paris. Now for our country story. I
will not translate the small bits of French in it; my most entirely
English readers can easily find out what they mean, and they must
gather what moral they may from it, till next month, for I have no
space to comment on it in this letter.
"My friend F---- called on me a few days since, and as soon as he
understood that I had no particular engagement, he insisted that I
should drive somewhere into the country, dine tête-à-tête with him,
and return in time for the play.
"When we had driven a few miles, I perceived a genteel-looking young
fellow, dressed in an old uniform. He sat under a tree on the grass,
at a little distance from the road, and amused himself by playing
on the violin. As we came nearer we perceived he had a wooden leg,
part of which lay in fragments by his side.
"'What do you do there, soldier?' said the Marquis. 'I am on my way
home to my own village, mon officier,' said the soldier. 'But, my
poor friend,' resumed the Marquis, 'you will be a furious long time
before you arrive at your journey's end, if you have no other carriage
besides these,' pointing at the fragments of his wooden leg. 'I wait
for my equipage and all my suite,' said the soldier, 'and I am greatly
mistaken if I do not see them this moment coming down the hill.'
"We saw a kind of cart, drawn by one horse, in which was a woman,
and a peasant who drove the horse. While they drew near, the soldier
told us he had been wounded in Corsica--that his leg had been cut
off--that before setting out on that expedition, he had been contracted
to a young woman in the neighbourhood--that the marriage had been
postponed till his return;--but when he appeared with a wooden leg,
that all the girl's relations had opposed the match. The girl's mother,
who was her only surviving parent when he began his courtship, had
always been his friend; but she had died while he was abroad. The
young woman herself, however, remained constant in her affections,
received him with open arms, and had agreed to leave her relations,
and accompany him to Paris, from whence they intended to set out in
the diligence to the town where he was born, and where his father still
lived. That on the way to Paris his wooden leg had snapped, which had
obliged his mistress to leave him, and go to the next village in quest
of a cart to carry him thither, where he would remain till such time
as the carpenter should renew his leg. 'C'est un malheur,' concluded
the soldier, 'mon officier, bientôt reparé--et voici mon amie!'
"The girl sprung before the cart, seized the outstretched hand of
her lover, and told him, with a smile full of affection, that she
had seen an admirable carpenter, who had promised to make a leg that
would not break, that it would be ready by to-morrow, and they might
resume their journey as soon after as they pleased.
"The soldier received his mistress's compliment as it deserved.
"She seemed about twenty years of age, a beautiful, fine-shaped
girl--a brunette, whose countenance indicated sentiment and vivacity.
"'You must be much fatigued, my dear,' said the Marquis. 'On ne
se fatigue pas, Monsieur, quand on travaille pour ce qu'on aime,'
replied the girl. The soldier kissed her hand with a gallant and tender
air. 'Allons,' continued the Marquis, addressing himself to me; 'this
girl is quite charming--her lover has the appearance of a brave fellow;
they have but three legs betwixt them, and we have four;--if you have
no objection, they shall have the carriage, and we will follow on foot
to the next village, and see what can be done for these lovers.' I
never agreed to a proposal with more pleasure in my life.
"The soldier began to make difficulties about entering into the
vis-à-vis. 'Come, come, friend,' said the Marquis, 'I am a colonel,
and it is your duty to obey: get in without more ado, and your mistress
shall follow.'
"'Entrons, mon bon ami,' said the girl, 'since these gentlemen insist
upon doing us so much honour.'
"'A girl like you would do honour to the finest coach in
France. Nothing could please me more than to have it in my power
to make you happy,' said the Marquis. 'Laissez-moi faire, mon
colonel,' said the soldier. 'Je suis heureuse comme une reine,'
said Fanchon. Away moved the chaise, and the Marquis and I followed.
"'Voyez vous, combien nous sommes heureux nous autres François, à bon
marché,' said the Marquis to me, adding with a smile, 'le bonheur,
à ce qu'on m'a dit, est plus cher en Angleterre.' 'But,' answered
I, 'how long will this last with these poor people?' 'Ah, pour le
coup,' said he, 'voilà une réflexion bien Angloise;'--that, indeed,
is what I cannot tell; neither do I know how long you or I may live;
but I fancy it would be great folly to be sorrowful through life,
because we do not know how soon misfortunes may come, and because we
are quite certain that death is to come at last.
"When we arrived at the inn to which we had ordered the postillion
to drive, we found the soldier and Fanchon. After having ordered some
victuals and wine, 'Pray,' said I to the soldier, 'how do you propose
to maintain your wife and yourself?' 'One who has contrived to live for
five years on soldier's pay,' replied he, 'can have little difficulty
for the rest of his life. I can play tolerably well on the fiddle,'
added he, 'and perhaps there is not a village in all France of the
size, where there are so many marriages as in that in which we are
going to settle; I shall never want employment.' 'And I,' said Fanchon,
'can weave hair nets and silk purses, and mend stockings. Besides, my
uncle has two hundred livres of mine in his hands, and although he is
brother-in-law to the bailiff, and volontiers brutal, yet I will make
him pay it every sous.' 'And I,' said the soldier, 'have fifteen livres
in my pocket, besides two louis that I have lent to a poor farmer to
enable him to pay taxes, and which he will repay me when he is able.'
"'You see, Sir,' said Fanchon to me, 'that we are not objects of
compassion. May we not be happy, my good friend (turning to her lover
with a look of exquisite tenderness), if it be not our own fault?' 'If
you are not, ma douce amie!' said the soldier with great warmth,
'je serai bien à plaindre.'"