mantel-piece, would have shown me, if there had been nothing else to
show it, that I was in France. The General looked round the room to make
sure that all was comfortably arranged for me, and then renewing his
welcome, and telling me that the castle-bell would ring for dinner in
about half an hour, left me to take possession of my quarters and change
my dress.

If I had not been afraid of getting belated, I should have sat down
awhile to collect my thoughts and endeavor to realize where I was. But
as it was, I could do little more than unpack my trunk, arrange my books
and writing-materials on the table, and change my dusty clothes, before
the bell rang. Oh, how that bell sounded through the long corridor from
its watch-tower over the gateway! And how I shrank back when I found
myself on the threshold of the hall and saw the inner room full! The
General must have divined my feelings; for, the moment he saw me, he
came forward to meet me, and, taking me by the arm, presented me to all
the elders of the party in turn. He apparently supposed, that, with
the start I had had in the Rue d'Anjou, I should make my way among the
younger ones myself.

It was a family circle covering three generations: the General, his son
and daughter-in-law and two daughters, and ten grandchildren,--among
whom I was glad to see some of both sexes sufficiently near my own age
to open a very pleasant prospect for me whenever I should have learnt
French enough to feel at home among them. Nor was the domestic character
of the group broken by the presence of a son of Casimir Périer, who was
soon to marry George Lafayette's eldest daughter, the Count de Ségur,
the General's uncle, though but a month or two his elder, and the Count
de Tracy, father of Madame George de Lafayette, and founder of the
French school of Ideology, companions, both of them, of the General's