could not possibly be given with greater delicacy; oh, and I will add
for myself, that for them to be related by anyone during my life, I
would rather have _you_ to relate them than another. But why should they
be related during my life? There was no need, no need. To show my
nervous susceptibility in the length and breadth of it to you, I _could
not_ (when it came to the point) _bear to read_ the passage extracted in
the 'Athenaeum,' notwithstanding my natural anxiety to see exactly what
was done. I could not bear to do it. I made Robert read it aloud--with
omissions--so that I know all your kindness. I feel it deeply; through
tears of pain I feel it; and if, as I dare say you will, you think me
very very foolish, do not on that account think me ungrateful.
Ungrateful I never can be to you, my much loved and kindest friend.

I hear your book is considered one of your best productions, and I do
not doubt that the opinion is just. Thank you for giving it to us, thank
you.

I don't like to send you a letter from Paris without a word about your
hero--'handsome,' I fancy not, nor the imperial type. I have not seen
his face distinctly. What do you think about the constitution? Will it
work, do you fancy, now-a-days in France? The initiative of the laws,
put out of the power of the legislative assembly, seems to me a
stupidity; and the senators, in their fine dresses, make me wink a
little. Also, I hear that the 'senatorial cardinals' don't please the
peasants, who hate the priesthood as much as they hate the 'Cossacks.'
On the other hand, Montalembert was certainly in bed the other day with
vexation, because 'nobody could do anything with Louis Napoleon--he was
obstinate;' 'nous nous en lavons les mains,' and that fact gives me hope
that not too much indulgence is intended to the Church. There's to be a
ball at the Tuileries with 'court dresses,' which is 'un peu fort' for
a republic. By the way, rumour (with apparent authority justifying it)
says, that a black woman opened her mouth and prophesied to him at Ham,
'he should be the head of the French nation, and be assassinated in a
ball-room.' I was assured that he believes the prophecy firmly, 'being
in all things too superstitious' and fatalistical.

I was interrupted in this letter yesterday. Meantime comes out the
decree against the Orleans property, which I disapprove of altogether.
It's the worst thing yet done, to my mind. Yet the Bourse stands fast,
and the decre