heaved the
two tom-fools into the shrubbery almost afore his Lordship could
believe his eyes. I won't say what had happened to the Vicar, for I
don't rightways know. All I can get out o' Sally--she's a modest
wench--is that--that--_he wanted to be a Statoo!_ . . ."

"Quite so," I interrupted, edging towards the gate and signifying
with a gesture of the hand that I had heard enough.

Old Trewoon's voice followed me.

"I reckon, sir, we best agree, for the sake o' the dear old fella,
that such a sight as them two Churchwardens was enough to make any
gentleman take to his bed. But"--as the gate rang on its hasp and
rang again--"I've been thinkin' powerful _what might ha' happened if
his Lordship had turned up in due time to partake_."

Master Dick is a good boy; and when we met in the Christmas vacation
no allusion was made to the Mont-Bazillac. On my part, I am absolved
from my promised confession, and my lips shall remain locked.
That great, that exhilarating, that redoubtable wine, has--with the
nuptials of M. Sebillot's daughter--perished finally from earth.
I wonder what happened in Bergerac on that occasion, and if it had a
comparable apotheosis!

THE THREE NECKLACES.

"A great nation!" said the little Cure. "But yes, indeed, the
English are a very great nation. And now I have seen them at home!
But it passes expression, monsieur, what a traveller I find myself!"

We stood together on the deck of the steamer, watching--after an
eight hours' passage from Plymouth--the Breton coast as it loomed
out of the afternoon haze. Our crossing had been smooth, yet
sea-sickness had prostrated all his compatriots on board--five or six
priests, as many religieuses, and maybe a dozen peasants, whom I
supposed to be attached in some way to the service of the religious
orders the priests represented. (Of late years, since the French
Government expelled them, quite a number of these orders have found a
home in our West Country.) On my way to the docks that morning I had
overtaken and passed them straggling by twos and threes to the
steamer, the men in broad-brimmed hats with velvet ribbons, the women
coifed and bodiced after the fashion of their country, each group
shepherded by a priest; and I had noted how strange and almost
forlorn a figure they cut in the grey English streets. If some of
the strangeness had worn off, they certainly appeared no less forlorn
as they sat huddled in physical anguish, dumb, im