I asked her if she spoke English. She shook her head.
"Parlez vous Français?" and, oh, joy, "Mais un peu," she replied.
I made known our dilemma, and she very sweetly settled with the facteur for about half the amount he had demanded of me.
Who shall say there is not a free masonry among women? There, in a strange country, with not a cent of that country's coinage in my pocket, knowing no word of its language, came to my assistance a woman of yet another country, speaking nor understanding no word of my mother tongue, and, in yet another language, which we both spoke indifferently, I asked and she gave aid with that same grave politeness which marks the noblesse oblige everywhere.
The next morning, dressed in our bravest, we had the concierge call the shiniest cab he could find, with the tallest-hatted cocher, and with the loveliest basket of roses that could be procured, we drove in state to the address she had given us. We had a cordial greeting, but somehow I fancy she had been in doubt as to whether or not she would ever see those few francs again.
You may rest assured that we have had sufficient money changed here, and that we have found numerous ways in which to spend it. Next to Venice, the lace shops are the finest in the world.
Part II.
The sea! the sea! the open sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever-free!
Without a mark, without a bound,