III.
FRANCE.
"GIRLS, I have had a scintillation in the night: listen and approve!" said Amanda, coming into the room where her comrades sat upon the floor, in the first stages of despair, at the impossibility of getting the accumulated rubbish of three months' travel into a couple of immense trunks.
"Blessed girl! you always bring a ray of light just at the darkest moment," returned Lavinia, with a sigh of relief, while Matilda looked over a barricade of sketch-books bristling with paint-brushes, and added anxiously,—
"If you could suggest how I am to work this miracle, you will be a public benefactor."
"Behold the amendment I propose," began Amanda, perching herself on one of the arks. "We have decided to travel slowly and comfortably, through France to Switzerland, stopping where we like, and staying as long as we please at any place
