w are ignominiously settled at Havre--yes, at Havre, the
name of which we should have scorned a week ago as a mere roaring
commercial city. But after all, as sometimes I say with originality,
'civilisation is a good thing.' The country about Etretat is very
pretty, and the coast picturesque with fantastic rocks, but the
accommodation dear in proportion to its badness; which I do believe is
the case everywhere with places, now and then even with persons--dear in
proportion to their badness. We could get three bedrooms, a salon, and
kitchen, one opening into another and no other access, and the kitchen
presenting the first door, all furnished exactly alike, except that
where the bedroom had a bed the kitchen had a stove; wooden chairs _en
suite_, not an inch of carpet, and just an inch of looking-glass in the
best bedroom. View, a potato-patch, and price two hundred francs a
month. Robert took it in a 'fine phrenzy,' on which I rebelled, and made
him give it up on a sacrifice of ten francs, which was the only cheap
thing in the place, as far as I observed anything. Also, the bay is so
restricted that whoever takes a step is 'commanded' by all the windows
of the primitive hotel and the few villas, and as people have nothing
whatever to do but to look at you, you may imagine the perfection of the
analysis. I should have been a fly in a microscope, feeling my legs and
arms counted on all sides, and receiving no comfort from the scientific
results. So, you see, we 'gave it up' and came here in a sort of
despair, meaning to take the railroad to Dieppe; when lo! our examining
forces find that the place here is very tenable, and we take a house
close to the sea (though the view is interrupted) in a green garden, and
quite away from a suggestion of streets and commerce. The bathing is
good, we have a post-office and reading-rooms at our elbow, and nothing
distracting of any kind. The house is large and airy, and our two
families are lodged in separate apartments, though we meet at dinner in
our dining-room. Certainly the country immediately around Havre is not
pretty, but we came for the sea after all, and the sea is open and
satisfactory. Robert has found a hole I can creep through to the very
shore, without walking many yards, and there I can sit on a bench and
get strength, if so it pleases God.

Have I not sent you a full account of us? Now if you would return me a
cent. per cent.--_soll und haben_. I want so much to know all