However, our departure was very nigh, and packing is an excellent cure for disappointment, though we were interrupted in that one morning with a request to write "something" in the visitors' book. With the memories of our pleasant stay upon us, we do not think we can err in reproducing one contribution, which was styled
"IDYLLIC COLBERT."
(With apologies to Mr. W. S. GILBERT.)
If you're anxious for to dwell in a very fine hotel
By the mountain's wide expanse,
You at once had best repair to that house so good though
chère
Called the "Grand Hôtel de France."
Or if for food your craze is, you still can give your praises
To the chef of its cuisine_.
Your taste you need not fetter, for 'tis said in Pau, no better
Has ever yet been seen.
But this I have to say, you will not like your stay
As much as if at Pension Colbert you the time had spent,
And such a time, I'm very sure, you never would repent.
If I'm eloquent in praise of those most peculiar days
Which now have passed away,
'Tis to tell you, as a man, what awful risks I ran
Lest my heart should chance to stray.
I never would pooh-pooh! 'tis cruel so to do,
Though often weak and ill,
For they my plaints would stop, with a juicy mutton-chop,
Or a mild and savoury pill!
And this I have to say, you're bound to like your stay,
And never in your life I'm very sure will you repent
The time in Pension Colbert's walls and well-trimmed
garden spent.
And if a tantalizing passion of a gay lawn tennis fashion
Should fire your love of sport,
On the neat and well-kept lawn, a net that's never torn
Hangs quiv'ring o'er the court.
Or if your voice you'd raise in sweet or high-tun'd lays,
You'll find a piano there,
And birdies too will sing, like mortals—that's a thing
You'll never hear elsewhere—
And then you're bound to say that you have liked your stay,
And never in your life I'm very sure will you repent
The time in Pension Colbert's walls and well-trimm'd
garden spent.
If for hunting you've a liking, you can don a costume striking,
And proceed to chase the fox.
Or if you're fond of driving, perhaps by some contriving
You may mount a coach's box.
If picnics are your pleasure, you can go to them at leisure,
And lunch on sumptuous fare,
And though maybe, perforce, you'll get lamb without mint
sauce.
They never starve you there.
And always you will say, that you've enjoyed your stay,
And never in your life I'm very sure will you repent
The time in Pension Colbert's walls and well-trimm'd
garden spent.
As Mrs. and Miss Blunt and Mr. Sydney had definitely decided to spend the time at Biarritz while I stayed at Bigorre, I turned my attention to discovering if any other acquaintances were proceeding in the same direction as myself. In this I was successful, and in company with Mr. H—— and his two daughters, and Mrs. Willesden and Miss Leonards, bade "au revoir" to Pau, with the prospect of a long spell of beautiful scenery if the clerk of the weather could only be controlled, by longings and hopes.