Page:Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home (Volume 1).djvu/213

210 would not trust me to buy a go-cart, that I have selected and bought to-day our travelling carriage. Mr. K. tells me I have good reason to be satisfied with my bargain, though I did not take François' advice, who said to me, as we were entering the coach warehouse, "No matter if you are very well pleased, always shake your head and say 'il ne vaut rien'" ("it is good for nothing"): this is a fair specimen of courier diplomacy.

took tea this evening with Madame ——. She has a gem of a country-house half a mile from town, resembling the cottage of a Boston gentleman. The grounds are laid out and cultivated with the elaborateness of an English suburban villa. Madame —— received us at the gate, and conducted us to seats beside a green painted table surrounded with flower-beds and under the shadow of fine old chestnuts. She told us her husband was induced by these chestnuts to buy the lot for a playground for his grandchildren. Then, in case of a shower, they must have a shelter, and he built a tearoom, and the shelter expanded to its present comfort and elegance; a pleasant illustration of the growth of a project. Madame —— gave us our choice of taking our tea in the garden, the balcony, or the drawing-room. The Germans seem to me to go into their houses as the pigeons do, only for shelter and sleep. Their gardens are, in fact, their drawing-rooms.