e admitted at four o'clock. The most illustrious of the _partie
carree_ was Chateaubriand, the most amusing Ballanche. My merit was that
I was the youngest. Later in the evening Madame Mohl, Miss Clarke as she
then was, was a great resource. She is a charming mixture of French
vivacity and English originality, but I think that the French element
predominates. Chateaubriand, always subject to _ennui_, delighted in her.
He has adopted in his books some of the words which she coined. Her
French is as original as the character of her mind, very good, but more
of the last than of the present century.'

'Was Chateaubriand himself,' I said, 'agreeable?'

'Delightful,' said Ampere; 'tres-entrain, tres-facile a vivre, beaucoup
d'imagination et de connaissances.'

'Facile a vivre?' I said. 'I thought that his vanity had been _difficile
et exigeante?_'

'As a public man,' said Ampere, 'yes; and to a certain degree in general
society. But in intimate society, when he was no longer "posing," he was
charming. The charm, however, was rather intellectual than moral.

'I remember his reading to us a part of his memoirs, in which he
describes his early attachment to an English girl, his separation from
her, and their meeting many years after when she asked his protection for
her son. Miss Clarke was absorbed by the story. She wanted to know what
became of the young man, what Chateaubriand had been able to do for him.
Chateaubriand could answer only in generals: that he had done all that he
could, that he had spoken to the Minister, and that he had no doubt that
the young man got what he wanted. But it was evident that even if he had
really attempted to do anything for the son of his old love, he had
totally forgotten the result. I do not think that he was pleased at Miss
Clarke's attention and sympathy being diverted from himself. Later still
in Madame Recamier's life, when she had become blind, and Chateaubriand
deaf, and Ballanche very infirm, the evenings were sad. I had to try to
amuse persons who had become almost unamusable.'

'How did Madame de Chateaubriand,' I asked, 'take the devotion of her
husband to Madame Recamier?'

'Philosophically,' answered Ampere. 'He would not have spent with her the
hours that he passed at the Abbaye au bois. She was glad, probably, to
know that they were not more dangerously employed.'

'Could I read Chateaubriand?' I asked.

'I doubt it,' said Ampere. 'His taste is not English.'

'I _hav