ting itself in a young woman of
considerable education, appears to me to be the judgment of a society.

Another observation which pushes me to the same induction--that of the
premature vitiation of the American population--is the attitude of the
Americans whom I have before me with regard to each other. There is
another young lady here, who is less abnormally developed than the one I
have just described, but who yet bears the stamp of this peculiar
combination of incompleteness and effeteness. These three persons look
with the greatest mistrust and aversion upon each other; and each has
repeatedly taken me apart and assured me, secretly, that he or she only
is the real, the genuine, the typical American. A type that has lost
itself before it has been fixed--what can you look for from this?

Add to this that there are two young Englanders in the house, who hate
all the Americans in a lump, making between them none of the distinctions
and favourable comparisons which they insist upon, and you will, I think,
hold me warranted in believing that, between precipitate decay and
internecine enmities, the English-speaking family is destined to consume
itself; and that with its decline the prospect of general pervasiveness,
to which I alluded above, will brighten for the deep-lunged children of
the Fatherland!

CHAPTER IX

MIRANDA HOPE TO HER MOTHER.

October 22d

Dear Mother--I am off in a day or two to visit some new country; I
haven't yet decided which. I have satisfied myself with regard to
France, and obtained a good knowledge of the language. I have enjoyed my
visit to Madame de Maisonrouge deeply, and feel as if I were leaving a
circle of real friends. Everything has gone on beautifully up to the
end, and every one has been as kind and attentive as if I were their own
sister, especially Mr. Verdier, the French gentleman, from whom I have
gained more than I ever expected (in six weeks), and with whom I have
promised to correspond. So you can imagine me dashing off the most
correct French letters; and, if you don't believe it, I will keep the
rough draft to show you when I go back.

The German gentleman is also more interesting, the more you know him; it
seems sometimes as if I could fairly drink in his ideas. I have found
out why the young lady from New York doesn't like me! It is because I
said one day at dinner that I admired to go to the Louvre. Well, when I
first came, it seemed as if I _did_ a