t's
eyes, but he was able to offer me food and quarters for the night, and
it was not requisite that he should be handsome, in order to do that.

[Footnote 9: A lay brother in a monastery, who is devoted to the
instruction of the poor.--TRANSLATOR.]

"Capital food, and very comfortable quarters! A manorial dwelling, a
real old, well-furnished manor-house; and in the large dining-room, in
front of the huge fireplace, where a large fire was blazing, dinner was
laid; I will say no more than that! A hotch-potch, which had been
stewing since morning, no doubt! A _salmis_ of woodcock, in defense of
which angels would have taken up arms; buckwheat cakes, in cream,
flavored with aniseed, and a cheese, which is a rare thing and hardly
ever to be found in Brittany, a cheese to make any one eat a four pound
loaf if he only smelt the rind! The whole washed clown by Chambertin,
and then brandy distilled by cider, which was so good that it made a man
fancy that he had swallowed a deity in velvet breeches; not to mention
the cigars, pure, smuggled havannahs; large, strong, not dry but green,
on the contrary, which made a strong and intoxicating smoke.

"And how the little old gentleman stuffed, and drank and smoked! He was
an ogre, a choirister, a sapper, and so was I, I must confess, and, upon
my word, I cannot remember what we talked about during our Gargantuan
feed! But we certainly talked, but what about? About shooting,
certainly, and about women most probably. Confound it! Among men, after
drinking! Yes, yes, about women, I am quite sure, and he told some funny
stories, did the little old man! Especially about a portrait which was
hanging over the large fireplace, and which represented his
grandmother, a marchioness of the old regime. She was a woman who had
certainly played some pranks, and they said that she was still frisky
and had good legs and thighs when she was seventy.

"'It is extraordinary,' I remarked, 'how like you are to that portrait.'

"'Yes,' the old man replied with a smile; and then he added in his
harsh, tremulous voice: 'I resemble her in everything. I am only sixty,
and I feel as if I should have lusty, hot blood in me until I am
seventy.'

"And then suddenly, very much moved, and looking at me admiringly, as he
had done once before, he said to the portrait:

"'I say, marchioness, what a pity that you did not know this handsome
young fellow!'

"I remembered that apostrophe and that look very well, w