questioning whether a centre could lead.

The pivotal figure, though perhaps not the heart, of this centre, was
unquestionably Mr. Carewe, and about him the neat and tight aristocracy of
the place revolved; the old French remnant, having liberally intermarried,
forming the nucleus, together with descendants of the Cavaliers (and those
who said they were) and the industrious Yankees, by virtue (if not by the
virtues) of all whom, the town grew and prospered. Robert Carewe was
Rouen's magnate, commercially and socially, and, until an upstart young
lawyer named Vanrevel struck into his power with a broad-axe, politically.
The wharves were Carewe's; the warehouses that stood by the river, and the
line of packets which plied upon it, were his; half the town was his, and
in Rouen this meant that he was possessed of the Middle Justice, the High
and the Low. His mother was a Frenchwoman, and, in those days, when to go
abroad was a ponderous and venturesome undertaking, the fact that he had
spent most of his youth in the French capital wrought a certain glamour
about him; for to the American, Paris was Europe, and it lay shimmering on
the far horizon of every imagination, a golden city. Scarce a drawing-
room in Rouen lacked its fearsome engraving entitled "Grand Ball at the
Tuileries," nor was Godey's Magazine ever more popular than when it
contained articles elaborate of similar scenes of festal light, where
brilliant uniforms mingled with shining jewels, fair locks, and the white
shoulders of magnificently dressed duchesses, countesses, and ladies.
Credit for this description should be given entirely to the above-
mentioned periodical. Furthermore, a sojourn in Paris was held to confer
a "certain nameless and indescribable polish" upon the manners of the
visitor; also, there was something called "an air of foreign travel."

They talked a great deal about polish in those days; and some examples
still extant do not deny their justification; but in the case of Mr.