Yet I would
not say that the doctor may not be susceptible on the point of royal
attentions; for he told us with great complacency how emphatically, on
two or three occasions, Louis Napoleon had returned his bow, and the last
time had turned and made some remark (evidently about the doctor) to the
Empress. . . . .
I ought not to omit mentioning that he has been told in France that he
personally resembles the Emperor, and I suspect he is trying to heighten
the resemblance by training his mustache on the pattern of that which
adorns the imperial upper lip. He is a genuine American character,
though modified by a good deal of travel; a very intelligent man, full of
various ability, with eyes all over him for any object of interest,--a
little of the bore, sometimes,--quick to appreciate character, with a
good deal of tact, gentlemanly in his manners, but yet lacking a deep and
delicate refinement. Not but that Americans are as capable of this last
quality as other people are; but what with the circumstances amid which
we grow up, and the peculiar activity of our minds, we certainly do often
miss it. By the by, he advanced a singular proposition the other
evening, namely, that the English people do not so well understand
comfort, or attain it so perfectly in their domestic arrangements, as we
do. I thought he hardly supported this opinion so satisfactorily as some
of his other new ideas.
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