tle of their parents, still less of their cousins, and become
comparatively indifferent to them.'

'I remember,' I said, 'the case of an heir apparent of seventy; his
father was ninety-five. One day the young man was very grumpy. They tried
to find out what was the matter with him; at last he broke out,
"Everybody's father dies except mine."'

'An acquaintance of mine,' said Beaumont, 'not a son, but a son-in-law,
complained equally of the pertinacious longevity of his father-in-law.
"Je n'ai pas cru," he said, "en me mariant, que j'epousais la fille du
Pere Eternel." Your primogeniture,' he continued, 'must be a great source
of unfilial feelings. The eldest son of one of your great families is in
the position of the heir apparent to a throne. His father's death is to
give him suddenly rank, power, and wealth; and we know that royal heirs
apparent are seldom affectionate sons. With us the fortunes are much
smaller, they are equally divided, and the rank that descends to the son
is nothing.'

'What regulates,' I asked, 'the descent of titles?'

'It is ill regulated,' said Beaumont 'Titles are now of such little value
that scarcely anyone troubles himself to lay down rules about them.

'In general, however, it is said, that all the sons of dukes and of
marquises are counts. The sons of counts in some families all take the
title of Count. There are, perhaps, thirty Beaumonts. Some call
themselves marquises, some counts, some barons. I am, I believe, the only
one of the family who has assumed no title. Alexis de Tocqueville took
none, but his elder brother, during his father's life, called himself
vicomte and his younger brother baron. Probably Alexis ought then to have
called himself chevalier, and, on his father's death, baron. But, I
repeat, the matter is too unimportant to be subject to any settled rules.
Ancient descent is, with us, of great value, of far more than it is with
you, but titles are worth nothing.'

[Footnote 1: This incident is described in a little book published last
year, the _Memoirs of Madame de Montaign_.--ED.]

[Footnote 2: M. de La Fayette was Madame de Beaumont's grandfather.--ED.]

[Footnote 3: The chateau of M. de La Fayette.--ED.]

_Saturday, August_ 17.--We drove to the coast and ascended the lighthouse
of Gatteville, 85 metres, or about 280 feet high. It stands in the middle
of a coast fringed with frightful reefs, just enough under water to
create no breakers, and a flat plain a