manner. A little bit of a woman, thin and shrivelled, with one
shoulder slightly higher than the other, black beads for eyes, and
the ugliest mouthful of teeth that I had ever seen on any one. Had
it not been that her expression was honest and good natured and her
manner bright and intelligent, I should have recoiled before the
yellow tusks of eye-teeth, and the blackened stumps and shrunken
gums revealed to me every time she spoke. She wore a print dress made
neatly enough which was very clean, and a black crape ruff round her
sallow neck. The shop was small but clean and at the back I saw, a
kind of little sitting room. Into this I went while she ran
up-stairs to prepare the room for my inspection. The carpet was the
usual horribly ingenious affair of red squares inside green octagons,
and green squares inside red octagons, varied by lengthwise stripes
of bright purple. The walls were plain white, covered with many
prints in vivid colors of the Crucifixion, the Annunciation and the
Holy Family; also three pictures of three wonderful white kittens
which adorn so many nurseries and kitchens. There were no ornaments,
but there was a large looking glass framed in walnut, and over it a
dismal wreath of roses and their leaves done in human gray hair. The
glass was opposite the door and I saw Delle Josephine descending to
meet me just as I was turning away from this suggestive "in memoriam."
A crooked little stairway brought me to a small landing, and three
more steps to my room. I may call it that, for I took it on the spot
It was large enough for my wants and seemed clean and when the paper
blinds, yellow, with a black landscape on them, were raised, rather
cheerful. We were opposite the chief "_epicerie_," the only
_"marchandise seches_" and a blacksmith, whose jolly red fire
I could sometimes catch a glimpse of.
Now, this is a really a true story of French Canadian life, or
rather let me say, a true story of one of my own French Canadian
experiences, and so I must confess that once installed in my little
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