d Vienna every winter, and each summer are the delight of Ems, of
Berlin, and of Ischl. What tyrants these fellows are, too, over the
men who have not got their gift of tongues! how they out-talk them and
overbear them! with what an insolent confidence they fall back upon
the petty superiority of their fluency, and lord it over those who are
immeasurably their masters! Just as Blondin might run along the rigging
of a three-decker, and pretend that his agility entitled him to command
a squadron!

Nothing, besides, is more imposing than the mock eloquence of good
French. The language in itself is so adaptive, it is so felicitous,
it abounds in such innumerable pleasant little analogies, such nice
conceits and suggestive drolleries, that he who acquires these has at
will a whole armoury of attack and defence. It actually requires years
of habit to accustom us to a display that we come at last to discover
implies no brilliancy whatever in him who exhibits, though it argues
immense resources in the treasury from which he derives this wealth.

I have known scores of delightful talkers--Frenchmen--who had no other
charm than what their language lent them. They were neither profound,
nor cultivated, nor witty--some were not even shrewd or acute; but all
were pleasant--pleasant in the use of a conversational medium, of
which the world has not the equal--a language that has its set form of
expression for every social eventuality, and that hits to a nicety every
contingency of the "salon;" for it is no more the language of natural
people than the essence of the perfumer's shop is the odour of a field
flower. It is pre-eminently the medium of people who talk with tall
glasses before them, and an incense of truffles around them, and
well-dressed women--clever and witty, and not over-scrupulous in their
opinions--for their company. Then, French is unapproachable; English
would be totally unsuited to the occasion, and German even more so.
There is a flavour of sauer kraut about that unhappy tongue that would
vulgarise a Queen if she talked it.

To attain, therefore, the turns and tricks of this language--for it is
a Chinese puzzle in its involvements--what a life must a man have
led! What "terms" he must have "put in" at cafes and restaurants!
What seasons at small theatres--tripots and worse! What nights at
bals-masques, Chateaux des Fleurs, and Cadrans rouges et bleus! What
doubtful company he must have often kept! What company a