B---- was saying
something against the character of the French people,--"You ought not to
form an unfavorable judgment of a great nation from mean fellows like
me, strolling about in a foreign country." I thought it very noble thus
to protest against anything discreditable in himself personally being
used against the honor of his country. He is a very singular person,
with an originality in all his notions;--not that nobody has ever had
such before, but that he has thought them out for himself. He told me
yesterday that one of his sisters was a waiting-maid in the Rocher de
Caucale. He is about the sincerest man I ever knew, never pretending to
feelings that are not in him,--never flattering. His feelings do not
seem to be warm, though they are kindly. He is so single-minded that he
cannot understand badinage, but takes it all as if meant in earnest,--a
German trait. Revalues himself greatly on being a Frenchman, though all
his most valuable qualities come from Germany. His temperament is cool
and pure, and he is greatly delighted with any attentions from the
ladies. A short time since, a lady gave him a bouquet of roses and
pinks; he capered and danced and sang, put it in water, and carried it
to his own chamber; but he brought it out for us to see and admire two
or three times a day, bestowing on it all the epithets of admiration in
the French language,--"_Superbe! magnifique!_" When some of the flowers
began to fade, he made the rest, with others, into a new nosegay, and
consulted us whether it would be fit to give to another lady. Contrast
this French foppery with his solemn moods, when we sit in the twilight,
or after B---- is abed, talking of Christianity and Deism, of ways of
life, of marriage, of benevolence,--in short, of all deep matters of
this world and the next. An evening or two since, he began singing all
manner of English songs,--such as Mrs. Hemans's "Landing of the
Pilgrims," "Auld Lang Syne," and some of Moore's,--the singing pretty
fair, but in the oddest tone and accent. Occasionally he breaks out with
scraps from French tragedies, which he spouts with corresponding action.
He generally gets close to me in these displays of musical and
histrionic talent Once he offered to magnetize me in the manner of
Monsieur P----.

* * * * *

_Wednesday, July 26th._--Dined at Barker's yesterday. Before dinner, sat
with several other persons in the stoop of the tavern. There was B--