render
anything proper, or anything improper, and it is not an easy matter to
say where the line, in conformity with good sense and good taste, should
be actually drawn. I confess a leaning to the American school, but how
far I am influenced by education it would not be easy for me to say
myself. Foreigners affirm that we are squeamish, and that we wound
delicacy oftener by the awkward attempts to protect it, than if we had
more simplicity. There may be some truth in this, for though cherishing
the notions of my youth, I never belonged to the ultra school at home,
which, I believe you will agree with me, rather proves low breeding than
good breeding. One sees instances of this truth, not only every day, but
every hour of the day. Yesterday, in crossing the Tuileries, I was
witness of a ludicrous scene that sufficiently illustrates what I mean.
The statues of the garden have little or no drapery. A countryman, and
two women of the same class, in passing one, were struck with this
circumstance, and their bursts of laughter, running and hiding their
faces, and loud giggling, left no one in ignorance of the cause of their
extreme bashfulness. Thousands of both sexes pass daily beneath the same
statue, without a thought of its nudity, and it is looked upon as a
noble piece of sculpture.

In dismissing this subject, which is every way delicate, I shall merely
say that usage tolerates a license of speech, of which you probably have
no idea, but that I think one hears very rarely from a French woman of
condition little that would not be uttered by an American female under
similar circumstances. So far as my experience goes, there is a marked
difference in this particular between the women of a middle station and
those of a higher rank; by rank, however, I mean hereditary rank, for
The revolution has made a _pele mele_ in the _salons_ of Paris.

Although the _petits soupers_ have disappeared, the dinners are very
sufficient substitutes: they are given at a better hour; and the service
of a French entertainment, so quiet, so entirely free from effort, or
chatter about food, is admirably adapted to rendering them agreeable. I
am clearly of opinion that no one ought to give any entertainment that
has not the means of making it pass off as a matter-of-course thing, and
without effort. I have certainly seen a few fussy dinners here, but they
are surprisingly rare. At home, we have plenty of people who know that a
party that has a l