It is wrong to be led into any kind of conversation, but what is
absolutely necessary, with the common, or indeed the middling class of
people in France. They never fail availing themselves of the least
condescension in a stranger, to ask a number of impertinent questions,
and to conclude, you answer them civilly, that they are your
equals.--Sentiment and bashfulness are not to be met with, but among
people of rank in France: to be free and easy, is the etiquette of the
country; and some kinds of that free and easy manner, are highly
offensive to strangers, and particularly to a shy Englishman.