Note 92 — LETTER XXXII.
Reading edition
Visits.—It is the custom, in all parts of France, and particularly at Paris, to receive and pay perpetual visits. The whole of every evening is passed in a routine of this kind (when the spectacle offers no irresistible temptation); and a parisian belle was, the other day, quite astonished and disgusted, when I told her, that in England ladies seldom received the visits of young men.—“Qu’elle vie ennuyeuse que votre vie de Londres!” exclaimed the fair one; “qu’on doit passer des tristes journées! Que peut elle faire, une malheureuse anglaise, après diner?”
“Elle va aux assemblées ou à l’opera—Mais si elle est malade?
“Elle reste chez elle.”
“Quoi toute seule! que vos dames sont à plaindre! Que je me félicite d’être françoise! Sans les visites de quelques amis choisis, je mourrois d’ennui.”
What a dull life must your english manners afford! What dismal days must one pass in such a country! What can a poor english lady do after dinner?
She goes to assemblies, or to the opera.
But if she is ill—
She stays at home.
What quite alone? Oh, how I pity your poor english ladies! Oh, how I rejoice at being born a frenchwoman! without the visits of a few well chosen friends I should die of ennui.
Notwithstanding this passion for receiving and returning visits among one another, the french are frequently negligent in this respect towards the foreigners who are recommended to them. I have heard english ladies at Paris complain, that their visits were often not returned at all, and that that early attention was rarely shown as to this little etiquette, which well bred persons in England are so careful to observe.