t in America, where your talents are justly
appreciated.... I have not seen Mme. d'H---- for a long time: she dines
at half-past nine--wakes when other persons sleep, which makes it
impossible to enjoy her society without paying the price of a night's
repose.... Your friend and admirer Mr. S---- is dead of old age. I met
him two weeks previous at a party. His widow gave a dinner the next
week, because she was afraid of being _triste_--receives and appears on
the Boulevards, because 'bon ami m'a dit qu'il fallait vivre.' Her
friends flatter themselves that her sensibility will not kill her, at
the same time that it enables them to give agreeable parties.... My
desire to see my child is stronger than my taste for Paris. I am of your
opinion: the best thing a woman can do is to marry: even quarrels with
one's husband are preferable to the ennui of a solitary existence.
There are so many hours apart from those appropriated to the world that
one cannot get rid of--at least one like myself, having no useful
occupation. You never felt ennui, because you cultivate talents which
will immortalize you.... Mme. de Stael died regretting a life that she
had contrived to render very agreeable. Her most intimate friends were
ignorant that a marriage with M. Rocca existed, and unless her will had
substantiated the fact they would have treated it as a calumny. Marrying
a man twenty years younger than herself, without fortune or name, is in
France _un ridicule, pire qu'un crime_. What think you of the
_Manuscript of St. Helena_ being attributed to her and Benjamin
Constant? Is it possible to carry the desire of rendering her
inconsistent further?... Adieu! Your recollection accompanies me to the
New World, where I hope I may meet any one half so agreeable. They write
me that my son is _petri d'esprit_. I fear that after exciting my hopes
he will become, like the generality of people, mediocre and tiresome.
Yours affectionately, ELIZA PATTERSON."

The next letter is preceded by Lady Morgan's comment: "Mme. Bonaparte,
with her airy manner, beauty and wit, would have made an excellent
princess, American as she was. One wonders that Napoleon should have
been blind to her capabilities--he whose motto was, 'The tools to him
who can use them.'"--"BALTIMORE, 1818. DEAR LADY MORGAN:... The demand
for your work on France was so great that it went through three editions
with us.... My son is intelligent, good and very handsome.... You have a
great d