as possible to Louisa. Her American friends have every reason to
be satisfied with her recollections of them, especially Mr.
Wyllys and Aunt Agnes, whom she evidently appreciates. Her
nephew, young de Guivres, and I, are very good friends already,
and often take a gallop together in the Bois de Boulogne. It is a
settled thing, Elinor, dear, that I am to bring you to France,
one of these days; that is to say, if you have no objections;
which, of course, you will not have. Tom Taylor is here still,
and his progressive steps in civilization are quite amusing, to a
looker-on; every time I see him, I am struck with some new
change--some fresh growth in elegance. I was going to say, that
he will turn out a regular dandy; but he would have to go to
London for that; he will prove rather a sort of second-rate
petit-maitre a la Parisienne; which is entirely a different
creature. It would do your heart good to see Robert; he eats like
a ploughman, if ploughmen ever devour poulets a la Marengo, or
ortolans a la Provencale. I wish I could give as good an account
of Creighton, who arrived in the last packet; poor fellow, he has
not revived at all, and, I fear, will never be better. His wife
is with him; as pretty and agreeable as ever. I hope Bruno
behaves well, and remembers that it is now his chief duty to
devote himself to your service."

{"petit-maitre a la Parisienne" = a ridiculously pretentious
dandy, Parisian-style; "poulets a la Marengo" = chicken Marengo,
a recipe supposedly invented by Napoleon's chef after the Battle
of Marengo in 1800; "ortolans a la Provencale" = ortolans (a
variety of bunting) in the style of southern France (Provence)
(French)}