ttled for six
months. We have had lovely weather, and have seen a fire only yesterday
for the first time since we left England. . . . We have seen nothing in
Paris, except the shell of it. Yet, two evenings ago we hazarded going
to a reception at Lady Elgin's, in the Faubourg St. Germain, and saw
some French, but nobody of distinction.

'It is a good house, I believe, and she has an earnest face which must
mean something. We were invited to go every Monday between eight and
twelve. We go on Friday to Madame Mohl's, where we are to have some of
the "celebrites". . . . Carlyle, for instance, I liked infinitely more
in his personality than I expected to like him, and I saw a great deal
of him, for he travelled with us to Paris, and spent several evenings
with us, we three together. He is one of the most interesting men I
could imagine, even deeply interesting to me; and you come to understand
perfectly when you know him, that his bitterness is only melancholy, and
his scorn, sensibility. Highly picturesque, too, he is in conversation;
the talk of writing men is very seldom so good.

'And, do you know, I was much taken, in London, with a young authoress,
Geraldine Jewsbury. You have read her books. . . . She herself is quiet
and simple, and drew my heart out of me a good deal. I felt inclined to
love her in our half-hour's intercourse. . . .'

138, Avenue des Champs Elysees: (Nov. 12).

'. . . Robert's father and sister have been paying us a visit during the
last three weeks. They are very affectionate to me, and I love them for
his sake and their own, and am very sorry at the thought of losing them,
as we are on the point of doing. We hope, however, to establish them in
Paris, if we can stay, and if no other obstacle should arise before the
spring, when they must leave Hatcham. Little Wiedemann 'draws', as you
may suppose . . . he is adored by his grandfather, and then, Robert!
They are an affectionate family, and not easy when removed one from
another. . . .'

On their journey from London to Paris, Mr. and Mrs. Browning had been
joined by Carlyle; and it afterwards struck Mr. Browning as strange
that, in the 'Life' of Carlyle, their companionship on this occasion
should be spoken of as the result of a chance meeting. Carlyle not only
went to Paris with the Brownings, but had begged permission to do so;
and Mrs. Browning had hesitated to grant this because she was afraid her
little boy would be tiresome to him.