s_ good in it so _really_ good. I
loved, shall always love her.

She looked away, and said, "_Ah! vous m'avez ecrit une lettre
charmante_" This was all the preliminary of our talk, which then went
on as if we had always known one another. She told me, before I went
away, that she was going that very day to write to me; that when
the servant announced me she did not recognize the name, but after
a minute it struck her that it might be _La dame Americaine,_ as
the foreigners very commonly call me, for they find my name hard
to remember. She was very much pressed for time, as she was then
preparing copy for the printer, and, having just returned, there were
many applications to see her, but she wanted me to stay then, saying,
"It is better to throw things aside, and seize the present moment." I
staid a good part of the day, and was very glad afterwards, for I did
not see her again uninterrupted. Another day I was there, and saw
her in her circle. Her daughter and another lady were present, and a
number of gentlemen. Her position there was of an intellectual woman
and good friend,--the same as my own in the circle of my acquaintance
as distinguished from my intimates. Her daughter is just about to
be married. It is said, there is no congeniality between her and her
mother; but for her son she seems to have much love, and he loves and
admires her extremely. I understand he has a good and free character,
without conspicuous talent.

Her way of talking is just like her writing,--lively, picturesque,
with an undertone of deep feeling, and the same skill in striking the
nail on the head every now and then with a blow.

We did not talk at all of personal or private matters. I saw, as one
sees in her writings, the want of an independent, interior life, but
I did not feel it as a fault, there is so much in her of her kind.
I heartily enjoyed the sense of so rich, so prolific, so ardent a
genius. I liked the woman in her, too, very much; I never liked a
woman better.

For the rest I do not care to write about it much, for I cannot, in
the room and time I have to spend, express my thoughts as I would; but
as near as I can express the sum total, it is this. S---- and others
who admire her, are anxious to make a fancy picture of her, and
represent her as a Helena (in the Seven Chords of the Lyre); all whose
mistakes are the fault of the present state of society. But to me the
truth seems to be this. She has that purity in her soul