Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

2i6 An Inland Voyage.
the hollow sound of ball and mallet, made a
cheery stir in the neighbourhood ; and the
look of these slim figures, all corseted and rib-
boned, produced an answerable disturbance in
our hearts. We were within sniff of Paris, it
seemed. And here were females of our own
species playing croquet, just as if Prccy had been
a place in real life, instead of a stage in the fairy
land of travel. For, to be frank, the peasant
woman is scarcely to be counted as a woman at
all, and after having passed by such a succession
of people in petticoats digging and hoeing and
making dinner, this company of coquettes under
arms made quite a surprising feature in the
landscape, and convinced us at once of being
fallible males.
The inn at Pn'cy is the worst inn in France,
Not even in Scotland have I found worse fare.
It was kept by a brother and sister, neither of
v/hom was out of their teens. The sister, so to