sant it is to me to find myself generally known
and liked here. If I go into a shop to buy anything, and give my card,
the officiating priest or priestess brightens up, and says: "_Ah! c'est
l'ecrivain celebre! Monsieur porte un nom tres-distingue. Mais! je suis
honore et interesse de voir Monsieur Dick-in. Je lis un des livres de
monsieur tous les jours_" (in the _Moniteur_). And a man who brought
some little vases home last night, said: "_On connait bien en France que
Monsieur Dick-in prend sa position sur la dignite de la litterature. Ah!
c'est grande chose! Et ses caracteres_" (this was to Georgina, while he
unpacked) "_sont si spirituellement tournees! Cette Madame Tojare_"
(Todgers), "_ah! qu'elle est drole et precisement comme une dame que je
connais a Calais._"

You cannot have any doubt about this place, if you will only recollect
it is the great main road from the Place de la Concorde to the Barriere
de l'Etoile.

Ever faithfully.

[Sidenote: Monsieur Regnier.]

_Wednesday, November 21st, 1855._

MY DEAR REGNIER,

In thanking you for the box you kindly sent me the day before yesterday,
let me thank you a thousand times for the delight we derived from the
representation of your beautiful and admirable piece. I have hardly ever
been so affected and interested in any theatre. Its construction is in
the highest degree excellent, the interest absorbing, and the whole
conducted by a masterly hand to a touching and natural conclusion.

Through the whole story from beginning to end, I recognise the true
spirit and feeling of an artist, and I most heartily offer you and your
fellow-labourer my felicitations on the success you have achieved. That
it will prove a very great and a lasting one, I cannot for a moment
doubt.

O my friend! If I could see an English actress with but one hundredth
part of the nature and art of Madame Plessy, I should believe our
English theatre to be in a fair way towards its regeneration. But I have
no hope of ever beholding such a phenomenon. I may as well expect ever
to see upon an English stage an accomplished artist, able to write and
to embody what he writes, like you.

Faithfully yours ever.

[Sidenote: Madame Viardot.]

49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES, _Monday, Dec. 3rd, 1855._

DEAR MADAME VIARDOT,

Mrs. Dickens tells