The country doctors about us now are a very different type—­much younger men, many foreigners.  There are two Russians and a Greek in some of the small villages near us.  I believe they are very good.  I met the Greek one day at the keeper’s cottage.  He was looking after the keeper’s wife, who was very ill.  It seemed funny to see a Greek, with one of those long Greek names ending in “popolo,” in a poor little French village almost lost in the woods; but he made a very good impression on me—­was very quiet, didn’t give too much medicine (apothecaries’ bills are always such a terror to the poor), and spoke kindly to the woman.  He comes still in a cabriolet, but his Russian colleague has an automobile—­indeed so have now many of the young French doctors.  I think there is a little rivalry between the Frenchmen and the foreigners, but the latter certainly make their way.

What is very serious now is the open warfare between the cure and the school-master.  When I first married, the school-masters and mistresses took their children to church, always sat with them and kept them in order.  The school-mistress sometimes played the organ.  Now they not only don’t go to church themselves, but they try to prevent the children from going.  The result is that half the children don’t go either to the church or to the catechism.

I had a really annoying instance of this state of things one year when we wanted to make a Christmas tree and distribution of warm clothes at Montigny, a lonely little village not far from us.  We talked it over with the cure and the school-master.  They gave us the names and ages of all the children, and were both much pleased to have a fete in their quiet little corner.  I didn’t suggest a service in the church, as I thought that might perhaps be a difficulty for the school-master.

Two days before the fete I had a visit from the cure of Montigny, who looked embarrassed and awkward; had evidently something on his mind, and finally blurted out that he was very sorry he couldn’t be present at the Christmas tree, as he was obliged to go to Reims that day.  I, much surprised and decidedly put out:  “You are going to Reims the one day in the year when we come and make a fete in your village?  It is most extraordinary, and surprises me extremely.  The date has been fixed for weeks, and I hold very much to your being there.”

He still persisted, looking very miserable and uncomfortable, and finally said he was going away on purpose, so as not to be at the school-house.  He liked the school-master very much, got on with him perfectly; he was intelligent and taught the children very well; but all school-masters who had anything to do with the Church or the cure were “malnotes.”  The mayor of Montigny was a violent radical; and surely if he heard that the cure was present at our fete in the school-house, the school-master would be dismissed the next day.  The man was over thirty, with wife and children; it would be difficult for him to find any other employment; and he himself would regret him, as his successor might be much worse and fill the children’s heads with impossible ideas.