At last they made arrangements,and I was transported to the establishment from which I now write you.I write you from the bosom of a Parisian menage--from the depths of a second-rate boarding-house.
Father only left Paris after he had seen us what he calls comfortably settled here,and had informed Madame de Maisonrouge (the mistress of the establishment--the head of the "family")that he wished my French pronunciation especially attended to.The pronunciation,as it happens,is just what I am most at home in;if he had said my genders or my idioms there would have been some sense.But poor father has no tact,and this defect is especially marked since he has been in Europe.He will be absent,however,for three months,and mother and I shall breathe more freely;the situation will be less intense.I must confess that we breathe more freely than I expected,in this place,where we have been for about a week.I was sure,before we came,that it would prove to be an establishment of the LOWEST DEION;but I must say that,in this respect,I am agreeably disappointed.The French are so clever that they know even how to manage a place of this kind.Of course it is very disagreeable to live with strangers,but as,after all,if I were not staying with Madame de Maisonrouge I should not be living in the Faubourg St.
Germain,I don't know that from the point of view of exclusiveness it is any great loss to be here.
Our rooms are very prettily arranged,and the table is remarkably good.Mamma thinks the whole thing--the place and the people,the manners and customs--very amusing;but mamma is very easily amused.
As for me,you know,all that I ask is to be let alone,and not to have people's society forced upon me.I have never wanted for society of my own choosing,and,so long as I retain possession of my faculties,I don't suppose I ever shall.As I said,however,the place is very well managed,and I succeed in doing as I please,which,you know,is my most cherished pursuit.Madame de Maisonrouge has a great deal of tact--much more than poor father.She is what they call here a belle femme,which means that she is a tall,ugly woman,with style.She dresses very well,and has a great deal of talk;but,though she is a very good imitation of a lady,I never see her behind the dinner-table,in the evening,smiling and bowing,as the people come in,and looking all the while at the dishes and the servants,without thinking of a dame de comptoir blooming in a corner of a shop or a restaurant.I am sure that,in spite of her fine name,she was once a dame de comptoir.I am also sure that,in spite of her smiles and the pretty things she says to every one,she hates us all,and would like to murder us.She is a hard,clever Frenchwoman,who would like to amuse herself and enjoy her Paris,and she must be bored to death at passing all her time in the midst of stupid English people who mumble broken French at her.Some day she will poison the soup or the vin rouge;but I hope that will not be until after mother and I shall have left her.She has two daughters,who,except that one is decidedly pretty,are meagre imitations of herself.
The "family,"for the rest,consists altogether of our beloved compatriots,and of still more beloved Englanders.There is an Englishman here,with his sister,and they seem to be rather nice people.He is remarkably handsome,but excessively affected and patronising,especially to us Americans;and I hope to have a chance of biting his head off before long.The sister is very pretty,and,apparently,very nice;but,in costume,she is Britannia incarnate.
There is a very pleasant little Frenchman--when they are nice they are charming--and a German doctor,a big blonde man,who looks like a great white bull;and two Americans,besides mother and me.One of them is a young man from Boston,--an aesthetic young man,who talks about its being "a real Corot day,"etc.,and a young woman--a girl,a female,I don't know what to call her--from Vermont,or Minnesota,or some such place.This young woman is the most extraordinary specimen of artless Yankeeism that I ever encountered;she is really too horrible.I have been three times to Clementine about your underskirt,etc.
