“To get Lafayette and Mirabeau together is her only chance of safety, I think,” said Calvert, in reply.  “The leader of the people and the leader of the Assembly, working together, might do much.”

“Impossible,” objected Mr. Morris, decidedly, “and I do not blame Lafayette for refusing to ally himself with so profligate a creature as Mirabeau, great and undeniable as are his talents.  Why, boy, all Paris knows that while he leads the Assembly, he is in the pay of the King and Queen.”

“And yet I heard you yourself declare,” returned Calvert, with a smile, “that men do not go into the administration as the direct road to Heaven.  I think it were well for this country to avail itself of the great abilities of Mirabeau and make it to his interest to be true to it.”  And in the long argument which ensued over the advisability of taking Monsieur de Mirabeau into the administration, Calvert had all the best of it, and judged Mirabeau’s talents and usefulness more accurately than Mr. Morris, keen and practical as that gentleman usually was.

Toward the middle of November word came to the American Legation at Paris, by the British packet, of the appointment of Mr. Jefferson to the Secretaryship of Foreign Affairs under President Washington, and the commission of Mr. Short as charge d’affaires at Paris until a new minister could be appointed.  This news was confirmed six weeks later by a letter from Mr. Jefferson himself to Calvert and Mr. Morris: 

* * * * *

It had been my ardent wish to return to France and see the ending of the revolution now convulsing that unhappy country, but the sense of duty which sent me thither when I had no wish to leave America now constrains me to remain here.  Hamilton has been made Secretary of the Treasury, and he is anxious to have you return, that he may associate you with him in some way.  But I have told him that, greatly as I should like to see you and to see you busy in your own country, it was my opinion that you had better stay abroad for a year or two longer and study the governments of the different European powers before returning to the United States.  You can learn much in that time, and your usefulness and advancement in your own country will be proportionately greater.  At any rate, I will beg of you to stay in Paris until you can arrange some of my private affairs, left at loose ends.  I enclose a list of the most important, with instructions.  Mr. Short will attend to the official ones for the present.  His commission was the first one signed by President Washington.  Pray present my kindest regards to Mr. Morris, and, with the hope of hearing from you both soon and frequently,

Your friend and servant,

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

* * * * *

This letter reached Mr. Calvert on the day before Christmas, and added not a little to the gloom of an anniversary already sufficiently depressing, passed so far from friends and home and amid such untoward surroundings.  He and Mr. Short were in Mr. Jefferson’s little octagonal library, still discussing the letter, among others received by the same packet, when Mr. Morris came in, the three gentlemen intending to have a bachelor dinner at the Legation.