“They came and sat on our fingers and ate crumbs out of our hands.” [1887.]
At Montreuil-sur-Mer
Jones and I lunched at the Hôtel de France where we found everything very good. As we were going out, the landlady, getting on towards eighty, with a bookish nose, pale blue eyes and a Giovanni Bellini’s Loredano Loredani kind of expression, came up to us and said, in sweetly apologetic accents:—
“Avez-vous donc déjeuné à peu près selon vos idées, Messieurs?”
It would have been too much for her to suppose that she had been able to give us a repast that had fully realised our ideals, still she hoped that these had been, at any rate, adumbrated in the luncheon she had provided. Dear old thing: of course they had and a great deal more than adumbrated. [26 December, 1901.]
XVII
Material for a Projected Sequel to Alps and Sanctuaries
Mrs. Dowe on Alps and Sanctuaries
After reading Alps and Sanctuaries Mrs. Dowe said to Ballard: “You seem to hear him talking to you all the time you are reading.”
I don’t think I ever heard a criticism of my books which pleased me better, especially as Mrs. Dowe is one of the women I have always liked.