CONCLUSION. 363 



surround it, but it opens much soon after it passes the hotel. 

 A broad but shallow river, which chatters over stones clay and 

 night, and souuds and looks so fresh and cool. There are baths 

 and drinking fountains. These last are of two kinds ; one iron, 

 the other " rotten eggs " (sulphuretted hydrogen). I am going 

 to drink the latter, but have not yet begun ; it is " bien deli- 

 cieuse," you may suppose, and cost a penny per day, for which 

 sum you may drink till you are drunk, or all day long. 



The place is seclusion itself ; the only noise we hear in our 

 rooms is the river, and in the woods the cicada, and the tinkling 

 cow and sheep bells. We are told there is no dew, and that 

 we may stay out till ten at night, and that it is delightful to do 

 so. At Biarritz we " shut up " at sundown, on account of the 

 very heavy dews, and frequently had to lie hj three or four 

 hours in the day for the heat. If we had plenty of books, which 

 we have not, we could stay here for a long while, but I have 

 Shakespeare to read, and the Bible, so I am not quite dry. 



I cannot conceive a sound mind holding conversations with 

 the dead, or getting messages from them to deliver, but I do think 

 some may be favoured with an ideal communion with the de- 

 parted, in which the presence of those we have lost seems to hover 

 about us, but without words — an innate vision of a spirit, and a 

 " silence " such as we read of in Job. I know our thoughts do 

 so dwell with them at times, as to bring forth in profusion pain- 

 less tears, but it may be only our own consciousness, and the 

 blessed may not know of it at all. The Church encourages us 

 (on Ascension-day) to endeavour " in heart and mind " to ascend 

 with our Lord (with whom are our lost treasures), " and with 

 Him continually dwell," and may not He in His infinite love 

 and power, be the medium of a sjjiritual communion between 

 them and us, even as He makes Himself also "one" with those 

 who partake of His flesh and blood ? I cannot divest myself of 

 such hope as this, be it sound or foolish. 



August i.th. We leave this place to-morrow, 5th August, and 

 onr next location we expect will be St. Servan. All the 

 country is beautifully green, and mushrooms and fungi flourish ; 

 — the weather has broken, and it is just as it might be at 

 Killarney. They eat queer funguses here — did you ever see 

 them in woods ? with a yellow, sponge-looking, pin-holed thing 

 under the cap, instead of gills. They are called Boletus by 



