"A friend to cheer me on my stranger-way."
To her kind attentions, whose house was my home during a great part of my stay in Paris, and whose only motive for such hospitality must have been the generous one of imparting happiness to a stranger, I am indebted for some of my most agreeable impressions of that city, and of its inhabitants. Courtesy and deference to the feelings of others throw a charm over the higher grades of society, and in some measure modify every class; and if fine manners do not exactly belong to the family of the virtues, they surely help to beautify them. Among the ancient noblesse was one, whose expressive countenance and unalloyed delight in social intercourse made it difficult to believe, that more than fourscore years had passed over him. His details of the revolution of 1790, of the secret springs that produced it, and of some terrific scenes which he personally witnessed, and which by a deliberate utterance he politely accommodated to a foreign ear, were to me more graphic than the pages of the historian. The pleasantness with which Age adapts itself to a new generation, and the affectionate manner in which it is welcomed among them, are delightful traits in the character of the French people. The children and descendants of Lafayette are naturally sought with interest by Americans, and their hearts still reciprocate every expression of such regard to their illustrious ancestor. La Grange is consecrated
