L - Y Took It In His Head
To Read His Son A Lecture Upon Filial Obedience.
This was mingled
with some sharp reproof, which the boy took so ill that he
retired.
The old lady observed that he had been too severe: her
daughter-in-law, who was very pretty, said her brother had given
him too much reason; hinting, at the same time, that he was
addicted to some terrible vices; upon which several individuals
repeated the interjection, ah! ah! "Yes (said Mons. L - y, with a
rueful aspect) the boy has a pernicious turn for gaming: in one
afternoon he lost, at billiards, such a sum as gives me horror to
think of it." "Fifty sols in one afternoon," (cried the sister).
"Fifty sols! (exclaimed the mother-in-law, with marks of
astonishment) that's too much - that's too much! - he's to blame -
he's to blame! but youth, you know, Mons. L - y - ah! vive la
jeunesse!" - "et l'amour!" cried the father, wiping his eyes,
squeezing her hand, and looking tenderly upon her. Mr. B - took
this opportunity to bring in the young gentleman, who was
admitted into favour, and received a second exhortation. Thus
harmony was restored, and the entertainment concluded with fruit,
coffee, and liqueurs.
When a bourgeois of Boulogne takes the air, he goes in a one-horse
chaise, which is here called cabriolet, and hires it for
half-a-crown a day. There are also travelling chaises, which hold
four persons, two seated with their faces to the horses, and two
behind their backs; but those vehicles are all very ill made, and
extremely inconvenient. The way of riding most used in this place
is on assback. You will see every day, in the skirts of the town,
a great number of females thus mounted, with the feet on either
side occasionally, according as the wind blows, so that sometimes
the right and sometimes the left hand guides the beast: but in
other parts of France, as well as in Italy, the ladies sit on
horseback with their legs astride, and are provided with drawers
for that purpose.
When I said the French people were kept in good humour by the
fopperies of their religion, I did not mean that there were no
gloomy spirits among them. There will be fanatics in religion,
while there are people of a saturnine disposition, and melancholy
turn of mind. The character of a devotee, which is hardly known
in England, is very common here. You see them walking to and from
church at all hours, in their hoods and long camblet cloaks, with
a slow pace, demure aspect, and downcast eye. Those who are poor
become very troublesome to the monks, with their scruples and
cases of conscience: you may see them on their knees, at the
confessional, every hour in the day. The rich devotee has her
favourite confessor, whom she consults and regales in private, at
her own house; and this spiritual director generally governs the
whole family.
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