228 DIEPPE. 



priated to each of the sexes. Tliere is also a hotel, with hot 

 baths, and, of course, dancing and gaming rooms. The English 

 cut a principal figure among the frequenters of these places ; and 

 we are tempted to translate from a little book of travels a dia- 

 logue which took place last year in the dancing-rooms, between 

 one of our fair country-women and the author. Our migratory 

 habits are, in fact, a standing quiz with the French — and no 

 wonder. 



" * If I may judge, Madamoiselle, by this little soiree, you 

 pass the time here very agreeably.' 



"* Yes; during the bathing season ; but in winter Dieppe is 

 very dull.' 



" * Then you have spent the winter here ? * 



"*Yes, with seventeen English families; and we were all 

 dreadfully weary.' 



" * Perhaps it is your usual place of abode ? ' 



" * Excuse me, my sister, and I were brought up at Paris.* 



" * I should have judged so from your manner of speaking; 

 but from Paris you came to Dieppe V 



" * Excuse me, we spent a year at Fontainbleau.' 



" * Then it was from Fontainbleau* — 



"* Excuse me, the next year we were at St. Germain.' 



"*And now you are at length fixed on the coasts of la 

 Manche.' 



"* Not fixed. Next year we shall probably be in Touraine; 

 from thence we may go to pass the winter at Montpellier, or 

 perhaps Nice; then to Italy, or Switzerland, we cannot yet say 

 where.* 



" * It appears, then, that the continent possesses many attrac- 

 tions for you, Madamoiselle?* 



" ^ England is so liitle ! one can hardly breathe in it ! ' " 



The worst of it is that, of all the English who spend the best 

 years of their life in traversing the continent from end to end, 

 there is not one in a hundred who is the better for it. It used 

 to be the custom for young men of fortune to travel under the 

 charge of a tutor, whose duty it was to point out to them every 

 thing worthy of observation ; and this would be an excellent 

 plan, if proper tutors could be found, or, rather, if the guardians 

 of youth were capable of choosing. For our part, we would 

 have no tutor understand either more or less of the learned lan- 

 guages than is necessary — and absolutely necessary — for a gen- 

 tleman. An eruditissimus, although a respectable enough homo 



