t, even to the spectator who did not venture near
enough to subject himself to a fine of six francs. The foreigners had
protected themselves in large numbers by not coming, and the natives who
prosper upon them suffered. The stout lady who kept a small shop of
ivory carvings at Montreux continually lamented their absence to me:
"Die Fremden kommen nicht, dieses regenes Wetter! Man muss Geduldt
haben! Die Fremden kommen nicht!" She was from Interlaken, and the
accents of her native dialect were flavored with the strong waters which
she seemed always to have been drinking, and she put her face close up
to that of the good, all-sympathizing Amerikaner who alone patronized
her shop, and talked her sorrows loudly into him, so that he should not
misunderstand.

[Illustration: _Entrance to Villeneuve_]

IV

But one must not be altogether unreasonable. When we first came in sight
of the lake the rain lifted, and the afternoon sun gushed out upon a
world of vineyards. In other words, the vines clothe all the little
levels and vast slopes of the mountain-sides as far up as the cold will
let the grapes grow. There is literally almost no other cultivation, and
it is a very pretty sight. On top of the mountains are the chalets with
their kine, and at a certain elevation the milk and the wine meet, while
below is the water of the lake, so good to mix with both. I do not know
that the Swiss use it for that purpose, but there are countries where
something of the sort would be done.

When the train put us down at Villeneuve, among railway people as
indifferent as our own at country stations, and much crosser and more
snubbing, the demand for grapes began with the party who remained with
the baggage, while a party of the second part went off to find the
_pension_ where we were to pass the next three months. The grape-seekers
strolled up the stony, steaming streets of the little town, asking for
grapes right and left, at all the shops, in their imperfect French, and
returned to the station with a paper of gingerbread which they had
bought at a jeweller's. I do not know why this artist should have had it
for sale, but he must have had it a long time, for it was densely
inhabited. Afterwards we found two shops in Villeneuve where they had
the most delicious _petits gateaux_, fresh every day, and nothing but
the mania for unattainable grapes prevented the first explorers from
seeing them.

In the mean time the party of the second par