Page:Horrid Mysteries Volume 3.djvu/177

 young men, and were serious in the company of the old ones; flattered the mothers, and treated the daughters with cold civility. When we entered a house, we were received with frigid reserve and sour looks, but pleasure and good-will beamed in the eye of every inmate when we left it: our salutes were returned with cordiality; every one was charmed with our conduct; and every thing changed in our favour. Yet we were too much exasperated as to drop our design, and impatient to be revenged for the treatment we experienced last night.

Our behaviour in the evening was also entirely changed. We betrayed not the least desire to mix with the dancers, but associated with the old peasants, discoursed of the vintage, made our observations on the wind and the clouds, presaged the weather, and pretended to know the meaning of the croaking of the frogs. The gaping peasants were astonished at the striking change of our behaviour, and