PARIS, _Saturday, July 30, 1859_.
I shall remain in Paris until the 15th of August, after which I shall
go, probably, to the Highlands for a few days. But it must be
understood, of course, that you shall have the preference over
everything else, and any day that you indicate you may expect me without
fail. You will notice that I am definite; see if, in your letters, you
can not be a little so yourself. It seems that you can no longer exist
away from mountains and venerable forests. I imagine that you are
browned by the sun and have gained in flesh. No matter how you look, I
shall certainly be charmed to see you, and you may be sure of being
treated with the most tender affection.
I see from your letters that you are spending your time merrily in
promenades and amusements of all kinds. I try to imagine what may be the
relative merit of an inhabitant of Pas-de-Calais compared to one from
Grenoble. Everything considered, I have leanings toward the former, for
the reasons that he is less noisy, and has never had any parliament to
persuade him that he has a mind, and that he has a political importance.
I knew, however, two intelligent men from Grenoble, but they had spent
their life in Paris. I can not conceive of what the women can be like.
It is not very long since I abandoned imaginary pictures of the human
heart, so that I might cease to interest myself in the mental status of
the present age....
I am still ill, and suspect sometimes that I am travelling on the grand
railway which leads beyond the tomb. At times the idea is painful to me,
at others I find in it the consolation which one feels in a railway
train: the absence of responsibility before a superior and irresistible
power....