d mistress of it,
of whom I must tell you something. Mr. Paige is a merchant, and
brother-in-law of Mr. Webster; Mrs. Paige a niece of Judge Story. From
this double connection with two of the first men in the country their
family associations are particularly agreeable. Mrs. Paige is one of
three sisters, all very handsome, spirited, and full of talent. One is
married to Mr. Webster's eldest son. Another, Mrs. Joy, has for her
husband an idle gentleman, a rare thing in this place. Mrs. Paige was
in Europe two years ago with Mr. and Mrs. Webster senior (the latter
by the bye is a _most_ charming person) and had the advantage of
seeing society in England and France in its best aspect, and is one
who can compare as well as see ... Among the men [of the Boston
society] are Dr. Chinning, a prophet in our country, a pamphleteer
in his own; Bancroft, _the_ historian of America, a man of superior
talents and great agreeability, but a black sheep in society, on
account of his Van Buren politics, against whom the white sheep of the
Whig party will not rub themselves; Prescott, the author of _Ferdinand
and Isabella_, a handsome, half blind shunner of the vanities of the
world, with some others, who read and write a good deal, and no one
the wiser for it. Edward Everett is in Italy, where you will surely
meet him [we saw a good deal of him]. He is rather formal than
cold, if all I hear whispered of him be true; of elegant taste in
literature, though not of easy manners, and altogether an admirable
specimen of an American orator and scholar. At Cambridge, three miles
off, we have Judge Story, of the Supreme Court, eloquent, deeply
learned, garrulous, lively, amiable, excellent in all and every way
that a mortal can be. He is decidedly the gem of this western world.
Mr. Webster is now settled at Washington, though here at this moment
on a visit to Mrs. Paige. Among our neighbouring notabilities is John
Quincy Adams, an ex-President of the United States, ex-Minister at
half the courts in Europe, and now at seventy-five, a simple Member of
Congress, hard as a piece of granite, and cold as a lump of ice."

Speaking of his having very frequently appeared at public meetings
during the first year of his Consulship, and of his having since that
refrained from such appearances, he continues: "I was doubtful as to
the way my being so much _en evidence_ might be relished _at home_. Of
late public matters have been on so ticklish a footing, tha