order, the bulletins of
the sick are read, and the billets of the well. She writes to some of
her acquaintance, and receives the visits of others. If the morning is
not very thronged, she is able to get out and hobble round the cage of
the Palais Royal; but she must hobble quickly, for the coiffeurs turn is
come; and a tremendous turn it is! Happy, if he does not make her arrive
when dinner is half over! The torpitude of digestion a little passed,
she flutters half an hour through the streets, by way of paying visits,
and then to the spectacles. These finished; another half hour is devoted
to dodging in and out of the doors of her very sincere friends, and away
to supper. After supper, cards and after cards, bed; to rise at noon the
next day, and to tread, like a mill-horse, the same trodden circle over
again. Thus the days of life are consumed, one by one, without an object
beyond the present moment; ever flying from the ennui of that, yet
carrying it with us; eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps
eternally before us. If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of
the circle, it is matter for the buzz of the evening, and is completely
forgotten by the next morning. In America, on the other hand,
the society of your husband, the fond cares for the children, the
arrangements of the house, the improvements of the grounds, fill
every moment with a healthy and an useful activity. Every exertion is
encouraging, because to present amusement it joins the promise of some
future good. The intervals of leisure are filled by the society of real
friends, whose affections are not thinned to cobweb, by being spread
over a thousand objects. This is the picture, in the light it is
presented to my mind; now let me have it in yours. If we do not concur
this year, we shall the next; or if not then, in a year or two more. You
see I am determined not to suppose myself mistaken.

To let you see that Paris is not changed in its pursuits, since it was
honored with your presence, I send you its monthly history. But this
relating only to the embellishments of their persons, I must add, that
those of the city go on well also. A new bridge, for example, is begun
at the _Place Louis Quinze_; the old ones are clearing of the rubbish
which encumbered them in the form of houses 5 new hospitals erecting;
magnificent walls of inclosure, and Custom-houses at their entrances,
&c. &c. &c. I know of no interesting change among those whom you honore