of our Minister, Mr. Mason, in order to confer with the Premier, Count
Walewski, with regard to the pecuniary indemnity which all agreed was due
to him from the nations using his invention. This conference bore fruit,
as we shall see later on.

In a letter to his wife from Paris he makes this amusing comment on the
fashions of the day, after remarking on the dearth of female beauty in
France:--

"You must consider me now as speaking of features only, for as to form,
alas, that is under such a total crinoline eclipse that this season of
total darkness in fashion's firmament forbids any speculation on that
subject. The reign of crinoline amplitude is not only not removed, but is
more dominant than ever. Who could have predicted that, because an heir
to the French throne was in expectancy, all womankind, old and young,
would so far sympathize with the amiable consort of Napoleon III as to
be, in appearance at least, likely to flood the earth with heirs; that
grave parliaments would be in solemn debate upon the pressing necessity
of enlarging the entrances of royal palaces in order to meet the
exigencies of enlarged crinolines; that the new carriages were all of
increased dimensions to accommodate the crinoline? But so it is; it is
the age of crinoline.... Talk no longer of chairs, they are no longer
visible. Talk no longer of tête-à-têtes; two crinolines might get in
sight of each other, at least by the use of the lorgnette, but as for
conversation, that is out of the question except by speaking trumpets, by
signs, and who knows but in this age of telegraphs crinoline may not
follow the world's fashion and be a patroness of the Morse system."

All the preparations for the great enterprise of the laying of the cable
proceeded slowly, and it was not until the latter part of July that the