jigging about at the "Casino." What a noise, to be sure, as much haggling and excitement over the selection of a red herring or a cabbage as if a lawsuit were in progress, and some poor client's property the point at issue! It was quite alarming to see how some of the marketers let their feelings get the better of them; yet it seemed it was only their manner of dealing, and meant no real hatred or animosity between buyer and seller. The harbour was very full of ships, all sorts, from dirty coalbarges to trim yachts, lingering a few days after the regatta had taken place. There were sailors from all nations, lounging about, or busy on board their vessels. The mingling of the different tongues was very confusing. The children would have liked to spend a long time in that quarter of the town, but Great-heart was obliged to urge them to come along, or they might really "miss the train." Trixie would not have let that happen for the world, for with the departure of the sea-sickness had returned all the longing to get on to the gay capital of France as soon as possible.

Contrary to expectation, they were not allowed to walk into the station and get into the train at once. There was as much fuss over them as if they had been prisoners, and waiting, under arrest, a summons to the Tribunal; for they were penned up

in a huge waiting-room, divided by three wooden partitions, round which ran very hard seats. Here were some few people already, chiefly of the poorer classes, waiting patiently, in company with their baskets and bundles, until the dread official, visible through the glass windows on the platform, chose to let them through. A small knot stood with their noses against the panes, in the hope of getting a start of their fellow-travellers. Presently the doors were flung open with a great deal of noise, and a man shouted out, in quite a tone of anger, as if he had been kept waiting instead of the inoffensive passengers, "En voiture, en voiture!" Then everyone gathered their things up and scampered off to the "tidal," which had crawled up from the boat and backed into the station to pick them up.

It was a long train, but quite full already; so, amid an immense amount of confusion, more carriages had to be attached. The officials seemed very cross and put out about it; but perhaps it was excusable, for there were many heads out of the carriage windows, heads that could belong to none other than Rooks, taunting them in English.

They got off at last, packed in a very stuffy, ill-ventilated compartment, Dot and Great-heart seated back to the engine, Trixie facing it; she could "see more that way," she thought.

They went along near the shore for some distance, every now and then getting a glimpse of the sea, then sped swiftly on over the metals into the country. But what different views to those on the other side of the water, what a contrast to all that lovely wooded scenery of England! (Where could that be matched, indeed?) Where was all the green ? Where the bright freshness of the landsscape the children had noted with such delight in their journey down to that sea they were running away from? There were trees and fields and lanes, truly. But who could in the same breath compare them; for the trees were angular and almost leafless, or pruned into such odd shapes as to remind Trixie of those in her Noah's ark now put safely by in Lowther Street: none of that unchecked luxuriance. The fields, when properly cultivated, seemed to bear their crops unkindly, being often mean and scanty. Lanes, no lanes at all, but narrow roads with the gaunt trees lining their sides like spectres; no pretty banks of moss or flower. And the houses they passed! Mere blocks of brick and stucco, without one single fondly-clinging creeper. Sometimes they darted past a great, staring, whitewashed manufactory, which stood out ugly and conspicuous. At intervals, at the sides of the line, were little cottages, in front of which always stood a man, who

saluted the train as it whirled past him.

If

These were people in the employ of the railway company. they did not come out and show themselves thus, they got into terrible trouble, frequently dismissed altogether.

Trixie soon got tired of looking out of the window at what she called "this monotonous country." Finally she sank back and closed her eyes languidly, although not in slumber.

Great-heart and Dot talked together, or with some of their fellow-passengers, who all stared very much at the children, especially a priest—who ever got into a railway carriage abroad without having a priest as a companion?-who never took his eyes off one or other of the children all the way. Yes he did, for a while, when he took his hurried, though substantial, meal at the station which stood midway on the road, and where the travellers were allowed "vingt minutes d'arret."

What a headlong rush there was into that restaurant and at that buffet! Like a swarm of locusts did those cooped-up travellers descend upon them, eating and drinking up all before them, or carrying the remnants back into the train to finish there, The noise was perfectly deafening, the scramble awful. How selfish everyone was too no quarter for the weak and inexperienced; what a confusion of

tongues, the English one being prominent amongst them. Although the proprietors of this half-way house were, of course, used to such innovations, and prepared to meet the storming parties daily, this particular attack must have even astonished them. With all their foreign tact for looking after their own, they must have lost a good deal of money over that train-load. So many people must have been in such a hurry to get back as to forget to pay for what they had had.

Great-heart saw that to attempt a sit-down repast was hopeless, so he bade the little ones await him at a given spot, while he stormed the place. He was successful to the extent of a bottle of red wine and some "sandwiches," if large rolls with meat protruding from their sides can be accepted as a foreign equivalent of the popular English combination. So they went back into their carriage and had their refreshment quietly there by themselves.

This twenty minutes of change seemed to have had quite a cheering effect upon their fellow-travellers, for everybody soon grew quite merry and chatty when the train got off again once more. In fact, there were symptoms of a desire to smoke on the part of some of them, but a hint having been thrown out as to Trixie's recent indisposition, although she was never tired of assuring the com