_Paris, Dec. 26, 1846._--In Paris I have been obliged to give a
great deal of time to French, in order to gain the power of speaking,
without which I might as usefully be in a well as here. That has
prevented my doing nearly as much as I would. Could I remain six
months in this great focus of civilized life, the time would be all
too short for my desires and needs.
My Essay on American Literature has been translated into French, and
published in "La Revue Indépendante," one of the leading journals of
Paris; only, with that delight at manufacturing names for which the
French are proverbial, they put, instead of _Margaret_, _Elizabeth_.
Write to ----, that aunt Elizabeth has appeared unexpectedly before
the French public! She will not enjoy her honors long, as a future
number, which is to contain a notice of "Woman in the Nineteenth
Century," will rectify the mistake.
I have been asked, also, to remain in correspondence with La Revue
Indépendante, after my return to the United States, which will be very
pleasant and advantageous to me.
I have some French acquaintance, and begin to take pleasure in them,
now that we can hold intercourse more easily. Among others, a Madame
Pauline Roland I find an interesting woman. She is an intimate friend
of Béranger and of Pierre Leroux.
We occupy a charming suite of apartments, Hotel Rougement, Boulevard
Poissonière. It is a new hotel, and has not the arched gateways and
gloomy court-yard of the old mansions. My room, though small, is very
pretty, with the thick, flowered carpet and marble slabs; the French
clock, with Cupid, of course, over the fireplace, in which burns a
bright little wood fire; the canopy bedstead, and inevitable large
mirror; the curtains, too, are thick and rich, the closet, &c.,
excellent, the attendance good. But for all this, one pays dear. We do
not find that one can live _pleasantly_ at Paris for little money; and
we prefer to economize by a briefer stay, if at all.