tened. You saw that her attention was always
active and always intelligent.

'And yet I doubt whether she really enjoyed conversation. _Tenir salon_
was to her a game, which she played well, and almost always successfully,
but she must sometimes have been exhausted by the effort. Her _salon_ was
perhaps pleasanter to us than it was to herself.

'One of the last,' he continued, 'of that class of potentates was the
Duchesse de Dino. Her early married life was active and brilliant, but
not intellectually. It was not till about forty, when she had exhausted
other excitements, that she took to _bel esprit._ But she performed her
part as if she had been bred to it.'

This was our last conversation. I left Paris the next day, and we never
met again.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Tocqueville, June 30, 1858.

I must complain, a little of your silence, my dear Senior. I hear that
before you left Paris you suffered a great deal from your throat. Is it
true, or have you recovered?

I have not either much to boast of on the score of health since we
parted. The illness which I had in Paris became still worse, and when I
got a little better in that way I had a violent bronchial attack. I even
began to spit blood, which had not happened to me for many years, and I
am still almost reduced to silence. Still I am beginning to mend, and I
hope, please God, to be able to _speak_ to my friends when they visit me.

You are aware that I wished to induce my wife to accompany me to the
South; but the length of the journey, the difficulties of transport, the
heat, and indeed the state of my health, were reasons which she brought
forward with so much force that we have remained here, and shall not
leave till the end of September. We still hope that you and Miss Senior
will join us the first week in that month. We shall be very happy to have
you both with us. This is no compliment ... I hope soon to be able to
enjoy more frequent communication with my English friends. A steamboat is
about to run from Cherbourg to the coast of England. We shall then be
able to visit each other as neighbours (_voisiner_).

Between ourselves, I do not think that the events in England during the
last six months are of a nature to raise the reputation of Parliamentary
Government in the rest of the world. _A bientot!_

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

Kensington, July 5, 1858.

My dear Tocqueville,--If I had written to you three days ago, I should
have talked of the pleasu