... Now for _bouquiniste_ news. I think I did not tell you that I had picked up a splendid quarto (with fine port) of Montaigne’s Travels. It is a beauty. Also _Nouveaux Memoires pour servir à l’histoire du Cartesianisme_, a tiny tome in vellum with Ste. Beuve’s autograph and pencil marks. Best of all, I got at an auction _Le Chevalier au Cigne_, which I have long vainly sought, four volumes quarto _demi mar._ for $33.50. I should not have thought it dear at a hundred. I am going out presently after a copy of the _Poètes Champenois_, which I have found at Aubry’s, for $180. Pillet asked $350 for an incomplete set. After this last extravagance I shall retire from business for a while, for I am getting beyond my depth. Aubry has a copy of _Renard_ bound for $40. Shall I buy it for you? It includes Chabaillé’s supplementary fifth volume.... We are having a nice time, though I felt like Dante when he turned round and missed Virgil, when I found that Rowse had flown. However, three days after John [Holmes] arrived in excellent health and spirits--likes our hotel, and will stay _ad libitum_. His knee is not quite right, but otherwise he is robustious. He confided to me yesterday that the first time we walked out, he wished me to guide him to where he could get some oysters! He thought they would quite set him up. He is very droll with his German, and delightful to the last degree. In French he is as inarticulate as one of his favorite shell-fish. We have a little woman who comes to talk with us an hour a day, and so soon as I get _fluid_ I am going to Littré. I already enter into conversation at table with gusto. _To the Same._ PARIS, 14 November, 1872. ... I am very glad you sent the Emersons to me. I have engaged him a lovely little apartment _au premier_ at 8 frs. the day. I think I shall take it myself when they go, for I am more and more minded to stay the winter through. We are all well and send lots of love to all of you. Fanny is at work on French exercises all day, and as for me, when I get my French suit of clothes I shall be a thorough Gaul. I am ready for a revolution (or at any rate an _e mute_) to-morrow. It is pretty chilly here now, and I almost wish the Commune had put off their bonfires till the middle of November, when they would have done some good. I am writing on a marble table, and my fingers are numb as gutta percha. _To the Same._ PARIS, 6 December, 1872.