“Dearest Charlotte,—I have just had your letter, being the first scrap of writing of any sort since my start, as this is the first of my meddling with the pen. I am glad that you are so nearly done with London, and thank you for all your other news. Mine are nothing! I have certainly felt much better ever since I got across the Channel—eat more and slept fairly, and even enjoyed some sights; but it is all owing simply to the cessation of that eternal infernal round of notes and worries, amidst which I had been latterly driven, I really think, very near the edge of insanity. I left no instructions about letters, either with Murray or with Martha—in fact, took special care not; but I should like to hear from you again, and think you may address Poste Restante, Tours, with a pretty considerable likelihood of my receiving the missive about the middle of next week. To-morrow we go to Fontainebleau—spend Sunday there—get to Orleans on Monday, and mean to give two or three days to Blois and its environs; after which comes Tours aforesaid.
“My companion is awfully hot and heavy, and will not
or cannot walk at all; nor has he almost the slightest curiosity about anything
but what he is to get for dinner, and so forth. But he
is very
| FRENCH TOUR | 353 |
“I admired two signs to-day: Objets de religion et fantaisie, and ; also, the aristocratic airs of the concierge at St. Germain, who was most politely communicative about all things included in the splendid view, till I pointed to a particular house in a particularly fine situation, when he said, with a shrug, ‘Ah! quelque château bourgeois! je n’en scais rien.’ This was the palace of some Rothschild near Malmaison.—Ever affectionately yours,
“Peter sends love to you both.”
