People say that the troops which pass before our windows every few days through the ‘Arc de l’Etoile’ to be reviewed will bring the President back with them as ‘emperor’ some sunny morning not far off.  As to waiting till May, nobody expects it.  There is a great inward agitation, but the surface of things is smooth enough.  Be constant, be constant!  Constancy is a rare virtue even where it is not an undeniable piece of wisdom.  Vive Napoleon II.!

As to the book, ah, you are always, and have always been, too good to me, that’s quite certain; and if you are not too good to my husband, it is only because I am persuaded in my secret soul nobody can be too good to him.

He sends you his warm regards, and I send you a kiss of baby’s, who is finishing his Babylonish education, unfortunate child, by learning a complement of French.  I assure you he understands everything you can say to him in English as well as Italian, so that he won’t be utterly denationalised.

God bless you.  Say how you are and write soon.

Your ever affectionate
E.B.B.

* * * * *

To Miss Mitford

[Paris,] 138 Avenue des Champs-Elysees:  November 12, 1851.

I see your house, my beloved friend, and clap my hands for pleasure.  It will suit you admirably, I see, plainly from Paris, and how right you are about the pretty garden, not to make it fine and modern; you have the right instincts about such things, and are too strong for Mrs. Loudon and the landscape gardeners.  The only defect apparent to me at this distance is the size of the sitting room....  If you were to see what we call ‘an apartment’ in Paris!  We have just a slip of a kitchen, and no passage, no staircase to take up the space, which is altogether spent upon sitting and sleeping rooms.  Talk of English comforts!  It’s a national delusion.  The comfort of the Continental way of life has only to be tested to be recognised (with the exception of the locks of doors and windows, which are barbaric here, there’s no other word for it).  The economy of a habitation is understood in Paris.  You have the advantages of a large house without the disadvantages, without the coldness, without the dearness.  And the beds, chairs, and sofas are perfect things.

But the climate is not perfect, it seems, for we have had very cold weather the last ten days, and I am a prisoner as usual.  Our friends swear to us that it is exceptional weather and that it will be warmer presently, and I listen with a sort of ‘doubtful doubt’ worthy of a metaphysician.  It is some comfort to hear that it’s below zero in London meanwhile, and that Scotland stands eight feet deep in snow.