has been to America since De Tocqueville; the French, in such
matters, are not very enterprising. Also, he has the air of
wondering what he is doing dans cette galere. He has come with his
beau-frere, who is an engineer, and is looking after some mines, and
he talks with scarcely any one else, as he speaks no English, and
appears to take for granted that no one speaks French. Mamma would
be delighted to assure him of the contrary; she has never conversed
with an Academician. She always makes a little vague inclination,
with a smile, when he passes her, and he answers with a most
respectful bow; but it goes no farther, to mamma's disappointment.
He is always with the beau-frere, a rather untidy, fat, bearded man,
decorated, too, always smoking and looking at the feet of the
ladies, whom mamma (though she has very good feet) has not the
courage to aborder. I believe M. Lejaune is going to write a book
about America, and Mr. Leverett says it will be terrible. Mr.
Leverett has made his acquaintance, and says M. Lejaune will put him
into his book; he says the movement of the French intellect is
superb. As a general thing, he doesn't care for Academicians, but
he thinks M. Lejaune is an exception, he is so living, so personal.
I asked Mr. Cockerel what he thought of M. Lejaune's plan of writing
a book, and he answered that he didn't see what it mattered to him
that a Frenchman the more should make a monkey of himself. I asked
him why he hadn't written a book about Europe, and he said that, in
the first place, Europe isn't worth writing about, and, in the
second, if he said what he thought, people would think it was a
joke. He said they are very superstitious about Europe over here;
he wants people in America to behave as if Europe didn't exist. I
told this to Mr. Leverett, and he answered that if Europe didn't
exist America wouldn't, for Europe keeps us alive by buying our
corn. He said, also, that the trouble with America in the future