and moss-thatched hamlets
need not be described; suffice it to say, it was France and June. An
omnibus was waiting at the station where we dismounted: it carried us
near, but not to, our destination. After leaving it we walked through
the streets of a low-roofed village, then followed a path bordered
with wild mignonette and apple trees that wound up the side of a hill
covered with vineyards. A couple of chattering magpies ran before
us, an invisible cuckoo was heard between snatches of Italian melody
warbled by the tenor _sotto voce_ and the little company overflowed
with gayety.

The house we arrived at looked as if it might be a castle in the air
materialized--pointed windows hidden in ivy, through which you saw
the chintz-covered walls of the interior; turrets on the roof and
a stair-tower; odd nooks for pigeons and cattle; the color a
weather-toned red, met by gray roofs, green trees and blue sky. We
passed through it to the quaint garden: rows of dwarf pears bordered
its paths, and trellises and walls supported nectarines and vines,
with sunshine and shadow caressing the half-ripe fruit.

The shady spaces were occupied by guests who had arrived before us,
and we saw with pleasure that ceremony had not been invited to attend.
The host's kindly manner was sufficient to put the company at once
at ease. We wandered at will from group to group, listening or
conversing: introductions were sometimes given, but more often not.

At one table some ladies and gentlemen were playing the artistic game
of "five points." A more difficult pastime was never invented. The
materials necessary are simply a piece of paper and a pencil: it is
their use that is extraordinary. A person puts five dots on the paper
in whatever position fancy may dictate: on this slight foundation
another is expected to design a figure, the puzzle being to include
all the marks given. One that I saw had four of the dots placed
unusually close together, and the fifth in a distant corner:
this latter, in the opinion of the lookers-on, would surely prove
refractory. After some moments of consideration, with pencil suspended
and eye attentive, the artist commenced drawing. In ten minutes the
sketch was finished. It was an angel: her upturned head took in the
highest of the group of dots; one hand hanging by her side the next;
a knee the third; and the flowing hem of her robe the fourth; but the
fifth in the corner--what could reach it? With a touch of the pe