

INTRODUCTION 



feeding, as he went : and the same night after 

 dinner, he sat down to put the fruits of his day's 

 work on paper. 



I think I may boast that I was the only one 

 who ever persuaded him to take a holiday, when 

 I induced him to join me on one of the visits it 

 was my habit to pay to Loudenne in the Medoc, 

 during the vintage. Tegetmeier called it a 

 holiday, but brain or hand, or both, were always 

 busy ; it might be the method of breaking bul- 

 locks to the yoke, or the capacities of the draught 

 dogs which are used by some of the peasants 

 in that district — but there was always something 

 to arrest his attention and provoke detailed 

 inquiry. It was impossible for him to be idle. 



I recollect one night at Loudenne, after dinner 

 when the rest of the party were playing cards or 

 billiards, that Tegetmeier, breaking off in a 

 discussion of some topic, suddenly sat up in his 

 chair to listen intently, commanding silence 

 with the autocracy permitted to age. Another 

 moment and he was on his feet and through the 

 window that opens on the terrace. Loudenne 

 happens to lie in the track followed by 

 birds on their southward migration, and 

 Tegetmeier' s quick ear had caught some note 

 he could not at once identify. I have forgotten 

 what he determined to be the species whose 

 voices had caught his ear ; but the incident 

 struck me at the time as one more proof of my 



ix. 



