it would seem, and make
the best of either alternative. The two old taverns at Arles are quite
unimproved; such as they must have been in the infancy of the modern
world, when Stendhal passed that way and the lumbering diligence
deposited him in the Place des Hommes, such in every detail they are
to-day. _Vieilles auberges de France_, one ought to enjoy their gritty
floors and greasy window-panes. Let it be put on record therefore that I
have been, I won't say less comfortable, but at least less happy, at
better inns.

To be really historic, I should have mentioned that before going to look
for the Rhone I had spent part of the evening on the opposite side of
the little place, and that I indulged in this recreation for two
definite reasons. One of these was that I had an opportunity of
gossiping at a cafe with a conversable young Englishman whom I had met
in the afternoon at Tarascon and more remotely, in other years, in
London; the other was that there sat enthroned behind the counter a
splendid mature Arlesienne, whom my companion and I agreed that it was a
rare privilege to contemplate. There is no rule of good manners or
morals which makes it improper, at a cafe, to fix one's eyes upon the
_dame de comptoir_; the lady is, in the nature of things, a part of your
_consummation_. We were therefore free to

[Illustration: ARLES--ST. TROPHIMUS]

admire without restriction the handsomest person I had ever seen give
change for a five-franc piece. She was a large quiet woman, who would
never see forty again; of an intensely feminine type, yet wonderfully
rich and robust, and full of a certain physical nobleness. Though she
was not really old, she was antique; and she was very grave, even a
little sad. She had the dignity of a Roman empress, and she handled
coppers as if they had been stamped with the head of Caesar. I have seen
washerwomen in the Trastevere who were perhaps as handsome as she; but
even the head-dress of the Roman contadina contributes less to the
dignity of the person born to wear it than the sweet and stately
Arlesian cap, which sits at once aloft and on the back of the head;
which is accompanied with a wide black bow covering a considerable part
of the crown; and which, finally, accommodates itself indescribably well
to the manner in which the tresses of the front are pushed behind the
ears.

This admirable dispenser of lumps of sugar has distracted me a little,
for I am still not sufficiently histo