in the
Hotel de la Ville de Paris, that I might rest for a week, and crowned
the rest of her goodnesses by agreeing to accompany us to Pisa, where
she was about to travel with her young niece. Therefore we are five
travelling, Wilson being with me. Oh, yes, Wilson came; her attachment
to me never shrank for a moment. And Flush came and I assure you that
nearly as much attention has been paid to Flush as to me from the
beginning, so that he is perfectly reconciled, and would be happy
if the people at the railroads were not barbarians, and immovable in
their evil designs of shutting him up in a box when we travel that
way.

You understand now, ever dearest Miss Mitford, how the pause has
come about writing. The week at Paris! Such a strange week it was,
altogether like a vision. Whether in the body or out of the body I
cannot tell scarcely. Our Balzac should be flattered beyond measure
by my thinking of him at all. Which I did, but of _you_ more. I will
write and tell you more about Paris. You should go there indeed. And
to our hotel, if at all. Once we were at the Louvre, but we kept very
still of course, and were satisfied with the _idea_ of Paris. I
could have borne to live on there, it was all so strange and full of
contrast....

Now you will write--I feel my way on the paper to write this.
Nothing is changed between us, nothing can ever interfere with sacred
confidences, remember. I do not show letters, you need not fear my
turning traitress.... Pray for me, dearest friend, that the bitterness
of old affections may not be too bitter with me, and that God may turn
those salt waters sweet again.

Pray for your grateful and loving
E.B.B.

[Footnote 149: This letter is of earlier date than the last, having
been written _en route_ between Orleans and Lyons; but it has seemed
better to place the more detailed narrative first.]

_To Mrs. Martin_
[Pisa:] November 5, [1846].

It was pleasant to me, my dearest friend, to think while I was reading
your letter yesterday, that almost by that time you had received mine,
and could not even seem to doubt a moment longer whether I admitted
your claim of hearing and of speaking to the uttermost. I recognised
you too entirely as my friend. Because you had put faith in me, so
much the more reason there was that I should justify it as far as I
could, and with as much frankness (which was a part of my gratitude to
you) as was possible from a woman to a woman. Always I have fe