86 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 



ferred to a stout lady, who, with great abrupt- 

 ness, refused permission. We pleaded that we 

 were strangers, and in all probability might 

 never have the opportunity of fishing there 

 again. This appeal ad misericordiam only 

 caused niadame to refuse even more decidedly. 

 The offer to present her with any trout we 

 might take made a look of scorn break over 

 her not very beautiful features ; and argument 

 and entreaty being alike exhausted, we re- 

 treated in no very amiable frame of mind from 

 the mill-yard. Half a mile higher up was the 

 village of Aulnay, where there was yet another 

 mill. Here we were confronted with another 

 madam e, the wife of M. Delille, the miller, but 

 quite different from the person we had just left. 

 The old Norman type of countenance, the 

 signs of a descent from the old Scandinavian 

 rovers, the followers of Eoric and Eollo, are 

 still to be seen in Normandy; and Madame 

 Delille preserved them in her fair hair, her 

 bright complexion, and her clear blue eyes. 

 At first she hesitated, but soon she seemed to 

 come to the conclusion that her husband would 

 not object to her exercising his authority, and 

 presently she ended her sentence with "Allez 



