ers bore you
along as proudly as if Louis Philippe were your grandfather and she
the royal wet-nurse; and later, after that hideous quarrel about
nothing, and the fatal fight by the 'mare aux biches,' how the good
fisher people of Le Pollet adored you! 'Un vrai petit St. Jean! il
nous portera bonheur, bien sur!'

"You have been thoroughly well loved all your life, my Barty, but
most of all by me--never forget that!

"I have been your father and your mother when they sat and watched
your baby-sleep; I have been Rosalie when she gave you the breast; I
have been your French grandfather and grandmother quarrelling as to
which of the two should nurse you as they sat and sunned themselves
on their humble doorstep in the Rue des Guignes!

"I have been your doting wife when you sang to her, your children
when you made them laugh till they cried. I've been Lady Archibald
when you danced the Dieppoise after tea, in Dover, with your little
bare legs; and Aunt Caroline, too, as she nursed you in Malines
after that silly duel where you behaved so well; and I've been by
turns Merovee Brossard, Bonzig, old Laferte, Mlle. Marceline, Finche
Torfs, poor little Marianina, Julia Royce, Father Louis, the old
Abbe, Bob Maurice--all the people you've ever charmed, or amused, or
been kind to--a legion; good heavens! I have been them all! What a
snowball made up of all these loves I've been rolling after you all
these years! and now it has all got to melt away in a single night,
and with it the remembrance of all I've ever been during ages
untold.

"And I've no voice to bid you good-bye, my beloved; no arms to hug
you with, no eyes to weep--I, a daughter of the most affectionate,
and clinging, and caressing race of little people in existence! Such
eyes as I once had, too; such warm, soft, furry arms, and such a
voice--it would have wanted no words to express all that I feel now;
that voice--nous savons notre orthographie en musique la bas!

"How it will please, perhaps, to remember even this farewell some
day, when we're all together again, with nothing to come between!

"And now, my beloved, there is no such thing as good-bye; it is a
word that has no real meaning; but it is so English and pretty and
sweet and child-like and nonsensical that I could write it over and
over again--just for fun!