Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 2.djvu/203

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Colonel A. Laussedat
313

result of this early experience for Mrs. Laussedat was a deep-rooted conviction that her husband's zeal and impulsive temperament might at times carry him too far and henceforth she always took care to counsel prudence and circumspection.

"But there is no watchfulness so constant that it will never relax and it might do so, for instance, just as a balloon ascension was preparing for the elucidation of some obscure point of meterology. Who could resist such a temptation? Surely not Laussedat, and could any one be blamed if, after a rough landing, he had to be placed in the doctor's hands?

"The lovable nature of the man was best appreciated in the intimacy of his home. Those who have had the good fortune to enjoy the hospitality of his beautiful country place, "The Priory," remember him as a delightful conversationalist. Having known personally all the prominent men of his time and been an actor in most of the great events of French contemporary history, he had an inexhaustible fund to draw upon. To listen to him telling his reminiscences of men and things and explaining what had taken place behind the scenes, was a treat never to be forgotten.

E. D."