368 MORE POT POURRI 



victories, brilliant blunders are all the upshot of what 

 many a record of distinguished lives has to present.' All 

 this from a night journey. It was broad daylight as we 

 came down the beautiful flowery slopes of the Cenis in a 

 luxurious French corridor carriage, so superior in every 

 way to the Italian one we had just left. 



The English used to be accused of being the great 

 eaters of Europe when I was young. I do not think that is 

 the case now. In our carriage was a middle-aged couple 

 I should imagine, brother and sister and evidently, as is 

 so often the case with other couples, the gray mare was the 

 better horse. She travelled with curious deliberation ; first 

 she wrapped up both the hats in beautiful bright Italian silk 

 handkerchiefs to preserve them from dust. Her black hair, 

 I suppose she thought, could be cleaned without expense. 

 She frizzled up her curls and wiped her dark, fat, ugly face. 

 She then produced a huge powder-puff and powdered her 

 face well all over. The man bore all this patiently ; he 

 was thin and bald, and much more refined-looking than 

 she was. He placed a black silk cap on his head. Then 

 she opened a large dog-basket filled with a most dainty 

 luncheon. Sandwiches folded up in a beautifully clean, 

 damp napkin began the meal. Then were eaten large 

 slices of meat and bread, mugs full of rich milk, cheese 

 (of which she must have eaten eight or ten ounces), and all 

 this with a resigned calm, as if she were performing a 

 sacred duty which she owed, not to herself, but to society. 

 The meal wound up with beautiful ripe Apricots grown, 

 I am sure, on their own Lombardy estate and a home- 

 made plum cake like an English one. The remains, which 

 were carefully packed up, would have fed a carriageful, 

 and, I confess, made me feel quite greedy, my humble 

 bread and cherries having nearly come to an end. When 

 they had eaten their fill, superior peppermint lozenges 

 were produced by the lady and shared by her companion ; 



