a much more important personage in the _coteries_ of
Paris than M. Rothschild; and the inventor of a new bonnet would enjoy
much more _eclat_ than the inventor of a clever speculation. I question
if there be a community on earth in which gambling risks in the funds,
for instance, are more general than in this, and yet the subject appears
to be entirely lost sight of out of the Bourse.

The little social notoriety that is attached to military distinction
here has greatly surprised me. It really seems as if France has had so
much military renown as to be satiated with it. One is elbowed
constantly by generals, who have gained this or that victory, and yet no
one seems to care anything about them. I do not mean that the nation is
indifferent to military glory, but society appears to care little or
nothing about it. I have seen a good deal of fuss made with the writer
of a few clever verses, but I have never seen any made with a hero.
Perhaps it was because the verses were new, and the victories old.

The perfect good taste and indifference which the French manifest
concerning the private affairs, and concerning the mode of living, of
one who is admitted to the _salons_, has justly extorted admiration,
even from the English, the people of all others who most submit to a
contrary feeling. A hackney-coach is not always admitted into a
court-yard, but both men and women make their visits in them, without
any apparent hesitation. No one seems ashamed of confessing poverty. I
do not say that women of quality often use _fiacres_ to make their
visits, but men do, and I have seen women in them openly whom I have met
in some of the best houses in Paris. It is better to go in a private
carriage, or in a _remise_, if one can, but few hesitate, when their
means are limited, about using the former. In order to appreciate this
self-denial, or simplicity, or good sense, it is necessary to remember
that a Paris _fiacre_ is not to be confounded with any other vehicle on
earth. I witnessed, a short time since, a ludicrous instance of the
different degrees of feeling that exist on this point among different
people. A---- and myself went to the house of an English woman our
acquaintance who is not very choice in her French. A Mrs. ----, the wife
of a colonel in the English army, sat next A----, as a French lady
begged that her carriage might be ordered. Our hostess told her servant
to order the _fiacre_ of Madame ----. Now Madame ---- kept her