mechanic as his inferior. Contrary to all our notions as all this is, it
is strictly reasonable, when the relative conditions, information,
habits, and characters of the people are considered. But servants here
are divided into many classes; for some are scullions, and some are
entrusted with the keys. It follows that those who maintain most of the
higher class, who are never in livery, maintain the highest style. To
say, he keeps a servant out of livery, means, that he keeps a better
sort of domestic. Mere footmen always wear it; the _maitre d'hotel_, or
groom of the chambers, and the valet, never.

But to return to the dispensation, I made it a point to taste every dish
that had been partaken of by the Nuncio and his neighbour; and I found
that they were all fish; but fish so treated, that they could hardly
know what to think of themselves. You may remember, however, that an
Archbishop of Paris was sufficiently complaisant to declare a particular
duck, of which one of Louis the Sixteenth's aunts was fond, to be fish,
and, of course, fit to be eaten on fast-days.

The fasting of these people would strike you as singular; for I verily
believe they eat more of a fast-day than on any other. We engaged a
governess for the girls not long after our arrival, and she proved to be
a bigoted Catholic, a furious royalist, and as ignorant as a calf. She
had been but a few weeks in the house, when I detected her teaching her
_eleves_ to think Washington an unpardonable rebel, La Fayette a
monster, Louis XVI. a martyr, and all heretics in the high road to
damnation. There remained no alternative but to give her a quarter's
salary, and to get rid of her. By the way, this woman was of a noble
family, and as such received a small pension from the court. But I kept
her fully a month longer than I think I otherwise should, to see her eat
on fast-days. Your aunt had the consideration invariably to order fish
for her, and she made as much havoc among them as a pike. She always
commenced the Friday with an extra allowance of fruit, which she was
eating all the morning; and at dinner she contrived to eat half the
vegetables and all the fish. One day, by mistake, the soup happened to
be _gras_ instead of _maigre_, and, after she had swallowed a large
plateful, I was malicious enough to express my regrets at the mistake. I
really thought the poor woman was about to disgorge on the spot; but by
dint of consolation she managed to spare us this