For so reasonable a person as I am, I have changed my mind very often about this country.  The first five days I was in violent spirits; then came a dismal cloud of whisk and literature, and I could not bear it.  At present I begin, very englishly indeed, to establish a right to my own way.  I laugh, and talk nonsense, and make them hear me.  There are two or three houses where I go quite at my ease, am never asked to touch a card, nor hold dissertations.  Nay, I don’t pay homage to their authors.  Every woman has one or two planted in her house, and God knows how they water them.  The old President HainaUlt(886) is the pagod at Madame du Deffand’s, an old blind debauch`ee of wit, where I supped last night.  The President is very near deaf, and much nearer superannuated.  He sits by the table:  the mistress of the house, who formerly was his, inquires after every dish on the table, is told who has eaten of which, and then bawls the bill of fare of every individual into the President’s ears.  In short, every mouthful is proclaimed, and so is every blunder I make against grammar.  Some that I make on purpose, succeed:  and one of them is to be reported to the Queen to-day by Hainault, who is her great favourite.  I had been at Versailles and having been much taken notice of by her Majesty, I said, alluding to madame S`evign`e, La Reine est le plus grand roi du monde.  You may judge if I am in possession by a scene that passed after supper.  Sir James macdonald(887) had been mimicking Hume:  I told the women, who, besides the mistress, were the Duchess de la Vali`ere,(888) Madame de Forcalquier,(889) a demoiselle, that to be sure they would be glad to have a specimen of Mr. Pitt’s manner of speaking; and that nobody mimicked him so well as Elliot.(890) They firmly believed it, teased him for an hour, and at last said he was the rudest man in the world not to oblige them.  It appeared the more strange, because here every body sings, reads their own works in public, or attempts any one thing without hesitation or capacity.  Elliot speaks miserable French; which added to the diversion.

I had had my share of distress in the morning, by going through the operation of being presented to the royal family, down to the little Madame’s pap-dinner, and had behaved as sillily as you will easily believe; hiding myself behind every mortal.  The Queen called me up to her dressing-table, and seemed mightily disposed to gossip with me; but instead of enjoying my glory like Madame de S`evign`e, I slunk back into the crowd after a few questions.  She told Monsieur de Guerchy of it afterwards, and that I had run away from her, but said she would have her revenge at Fontainbleau.  So I must go thither, which I do not intend.  The King, Dauphin, Dauphiness, Mesdames, and the wild beasts did not say a word to me.  Yes, the wild beast, he of the Gevaudan.  He is killed, and actually in the Queen’s antechamber, where he was exhibited to us with as much parade as