please me he has adopted the dress, and with the dress, the manners of
the day.

We have English horses, a coupe, a barouche, and a tilbury. The livery
of our servants is simple but in good taste. Of course we are looked
on as spendthrifts. I apply all my intellect (I am speaking quite
seriously) to managing my household with economy, and obtaining for it
the maximum of pleasure with the minimum of cost.

I have already convinced Louis of the necessity of getting roads made,
in order that he may earn the reputation of a man interested in the
welfare of his district. I insist too on his studying a great deal.
Before long I hope to see him a member of the Council General of the
Department, through the influence of my family and his mother's. I
have told him plainly that I am ambitious, and that I was very well
pleased his father should continue to look after the estate and
practise economies, because I wished him to devote himself exclusively
to politics. If we had children, I should like to see them all
prosperous and with good State appointments. Under penalty, therefore,
of forfeiting my esteem and affection, he must get himself chosen
deputy for the department at the coming elections; my family would
support his candidature, and we should then have the delight of
spending all our winters in Paris. Ah! my love, by the ardor with
which he embraced my plans, I can gauge the depth of his affection.

To conclude here is a letter he wrote me yesterday from Marseilles,
where he had gone to spend a few hours:

"MY SWEET RENEE,--When you gave me permission to love you, I began
to believe in happiness; now, I see it unfolding endlessly before