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Alas! that was a happy time, when my carriage used to await me at the door of the Rocher de Cancale, and then whirl me to a succession of visits, varying in their degree and nature as the whim prompted: now to the brilliant soirees of Madame De , or to the appartemens au troisieme of some less celebrated daughter of dissipation and ecarte; now to the literary conversaziones of the Duchesse de D s, or the Vicomte d'A , and then to the feverish excitement of the gambling house.
The former is old, ugly, and very ill tempered; the latter tolerably pretty, and agreeable, and just of age; but you will perceive the impropriety of even thinking of her till we have tried the other. I am going to ask both to my Sunday soirees, where I never admit any single men, so that there, at least, you will have no rivals.
Soirées at the castle, tea-garden parties, picnics upon the thousand lovely isles that beautify the Sitkan Sea; strolls among the sylvan retreats in which the primeval forest, at the very edge of the town, abounds; fishing and hunting expeditions, music, dancing, lively conversation, strong punch, caviare and the steaming samovar, those were the chief diversions with which noble and serf alike sought to lighten the burden of the day.
The dress of the British military, in its stiff and formal ugliness, was equally cumbrous and ludicrous. Lady Oxford that beautiful and accomplished woman, who lived in her hotel in the Rue de Clichy gave charming soirees, at which were gathered the elite of Paris society.
So little Pincott being occupied all day and night in stitching, hemming, ripping, combing, ironing, crimping, for her mistress; reading to her when in bed, for the girl was mistress of the two languages, and had a sweet voice and manner could take no share in Madame Fribsby's soirees, nor indeed was she much missed, or considered of sufficient consequence to appear at their entertainments.
Garrison and his associates were the recipients of the most cordial and flattering attention from the English Abolitionists. He was quite lionized, in fact, at breakfasts, fêtes, and soirées.
She was very soon so brilliantly in fashion, that there was not a grand seigneur of the court, a grande dame of the queen's intimacy, a rich fermier-général, or a famous writer, artist, or savant, who did not petition to be admitted to her soirées; and in her small apartment, in the Rue de Cléry, were held probably the last of those intimate and charmingly unceremonious réunions which so especially characterized the manners of the high society of France when all question of etiquette was set aside.
Then seeing Dalrymple tear up his own letter immediately after reading it, and begin another, I added, still in my own mind "And it is from the lady to whom he was writing." Presently he paused, laid his pen aside, and said: "Arbuthnot, would you like to go with me to-morrow evening to one or two soirées?" "Can your Civilizer provide me with my evening suit in time?" "He? The great Michaud?
Pindar, one of those careless, unsentimental fellows, that occasionally throw off an ode that passes through Christendom, as dollars are known to pass from China to Norway, and yet, who never fancied spectacles necessary to his appearance, solemnity to his face, nor soirées to his renown. After quitting Mrs. Legend, he approached Eve, to whom he was slightly known, and accosted her.
Do you suppose that I would stay in Paris her husband and live apart from her? Meet her, like an ordinary acquaintance? See others admiring her? Be content to lounge in and out of her soirées, or ride beside her carriage now and then, as you or fifty others might do? Perhaps, have even to endure the presence of De Caylus himself? Merci!
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