blended the magnificence and splendor of France with the neatness and
elegance of England. Your cousin had unfortunately taken a cold a few
days before, and was very unfit to go out. She appeared so unwell that
about one we retired without staying for supper, the sight of which only
I regretted, as it was, in style, no doubt, superior to anything I have
seen. The Prince of Wales came about eleven o'clock. Mrs. Fitzherbert
was also present, but I could not distinguish her. But who is this lady?
methinks I hear you say. She is a lady to whom, against the laws of the
realm, the Prince of Wales is privately married, as is universally
believed. She appears with him in all public parties, and he avows his
marriage wherever he dares. They have been the topic of conversation in
all companies for a long time, and it is now said that a young George
may be expected in the course of the summer. She was a widow of about
thirty-two years of age, whom he a long time persecuted in order to get
her upon his own terms; but finding he could not succeed, he quieted her
conscience by matrimony, which, however valid in the eye of heaven, is
set aside by the laws of the land, which forbids a prince of the blood
to marry a subject. As to dresses, I believe I must leave them to be
described to your sister. I am sorry I have nothing better to send you
than a sash and a Vandyke ribbon. The narrow is to put round the edge of
a hat, or you may trim whatever you please with it.

HENRY ADAMS

(1838-)

The gifts of expression and literary taste which have always
characterized the Adams family are most prominently represented by this
historian. He has also its great memory, power of acquisition,
intellectual independence, and energy of nature. The latter is tempered
in him with inherited self-control, the moderation of judgment bred by
wide historical knowledge, and a pervasive atmosphere of literary
good-breeding which constantly substitutes allusive irony for crude
statement, the rapier for the tomahawk.

Henry Adams is the third son of Charles Francis Adams, Sr.,--the able
Minister to England during the Civil War,--and grandson of John Quincy
Adams. He was born in Boston, February 16th, 1838, graduated from
Harvard in 1858, and served as private secretary to his father in
England. In 1870 he became editor of the North American Review and
Professor of History at Harvard, in which place he won wide repute for
originality and power of inspi