“Yes, and do you notice how we frequently observe villagers in an impromptu dance? They dance in their every-day cloathes at the slightest provocation, taking up serving-maids, passers-by, anyone about, and beginning the quadrille. How much of our pleasure as a nation is suspended by preparation—rooms, time, dress—whilst these people seize upon every opportunity to be merry and happy in their place! It is no wonder they are more animated than ourselves—they make every moment an excuse for being so.”

“Yes, but this does not decide anything. Are they merry because they dance, or do they dance because they are merry? It all seems so of a piece that we, as English, are not able to separate the cause from the effect,” replied Georgiana.

“Spoken like a true Englishwoman!” laughed Elizabeth. “Whilst we sit about in the contemplation of this conundrum, they are dancing without regard to any theory of why it is they dance. For myself, I would much rather be merry than wise.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Darcy was noticing the earliness of the crops, and told the ladies that their forwardness was due to the French practise of irrigating their fields.

“If it is such a benefit, why do not the English adopt such a method?” asked Georgiana. Darcy replied, “Two reasons: first, our island is generally blessed with the rain-fall needed for our cultivation, and our farmers know how to use the regular patterns of the weather to their advantage; the second is the cost of the labour to distribute water to the fields. The French seem to have overcome that deterrent by employing their women to assume the additional burthen of hauling the water to the fields, but I do not think such treatment of women in England would be countenanced, even by the lowest rank of farmer.” They halted in Abbeville at another of the ubiquitous Tête de Boeuf that evening and—despite some information to the contrary—both the supper and the rooms of the inn were in every way satisfactory. The proprietress was an healthy-looking, handsome young mother with two small children. The little girls were remarkably pretty, with fine, clear dark skin, with glowing, rosy cheeks; their eyes were of an unusually deep blue, with long black lashes. The Darcy ladies complimented the woman on the beauty of her children, and were gratified to find that French parents responded to praise of their young in the universal way.