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186 that every one who enjoyed her society loved her, and servants, companions, intimates, friends, all united in esteem and affection for the gentle and self-sacrificing being who never exhibited a single trait of egotism, presumption, or unkindliness!

As I must, at a later date, refer to the sequel of her literary career, I think I cannot do better in this place, than anticipate a series of letters, and let her illustrate herself and her talents, under such circumstances as a visit to Paris called forth, by the correspondence with which I was favoured on the occasion. To me it appears worthy of the atmosphere of that city which has produced the cleverest letter-writers in the world of literature, and to partake of much of their naïveté and spirituel nerve, tinged with her own characteristics, and I offer it as a contrast to my own descriptions twenty years before, in 1814 (see vol. i.), when Paris was seen, indeed, under very different aspects. Two years hence, another twenty years will have elapsed, and the epochs of 1814, 1834, and 1854, would furnish ample materials for a memorable contrast and tale. But allons to the sprightly pictures painted by L. E. L., in the summer of 1834. The first note I refer to is preliminary, and says, "I really must settle definitively about my going to France. As to merely going for the sake of pleasure, I care as little about it as any one can care; but I wish to go for two or three reasons. Firstly, because of the scenes of my next novel being laid in Paris, it would be such an advantage really seeing it. Secondly, I think I should get some new ideas, which I very much want; and last, though not least, it would be something to be out of the perpetual worry here [money short], for a little while. I wish I could have talked over 'Philip Van Artevelde' with you. Parts I think very fine, but rather, if