ask him to take a chair. Madame Janin did so, however, and kindly,
too. The author supplicated the critic to attend the first appearance
of his play. Janin would not promise to go, but put him off
indefinitely, and presently the poor man went away. He tingled all
over with indignation at the treatment the man received, but Janin
looked over to his wife, saying, 'Well, my dear, I treated this one
pretty well, didn't I?'

"'Better than sometimes, Jules,' she answered."

Altogether it was a strange scene to the young American observer.

"_July_, 1867.--Passed the day at Nahant. As Longfellow sat on
the piazza wrapped in his blue cloth cloak, he struck me for the first
time as wearing a venerable aspect. Before dinner he gathered wild
roses to adorn the table, and even gave a careful touch himself to the
arrangement of the wines and fruits. He was in excellent spirits, full
of wit and lively talk. Speaking of the use and misuse of words, he
quoted Chateaubriand's mistake (afterwards corrected) in his
translation of 'Paradise Lost,' when he rendered

"'Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God,'

as

"'Le ruisseau de Siloa qui coulait rapidement.'"

In talking about natural differences in character and temperament, he
said of his own children that he agreed with one of the old English