His wife's sister, Mrs. Goodrich, with her husband and daughters, occupied an apartment in the same building; his grandson Charles Lind was also in Paris studying painting, and before the summer of the next year other members of his family came to Paris, so that at one time eighteen of those related to him by blood or marriage were around him. To a man of Morse's affectionate nature and loyalty to family this was a source of peculiar joy, and those Parisian days were some of the happiest of his life. The rest of the autumn and early winter were spent in sight-seeing and in settling his children in their various studies. The brilliance of the court of Napoleon III just before the _débâcle_ of 1870 is a matter of history, and it reached its high-water mark during the Exposition year of 1867, when emperors, kings, and princes journeyed to Paris to do homage to the man of the hour. Court balls, receptions, gala performances at opera and theatre, and military reviews followed each other in bewildering but well-ordered confusion, and Morse, as a man of worldwide celebrity, took part in all of them. He and his wife and his young daughter, a girl of sixteen, were presented at court, and were fêted everywhere. In a letter to his mother-in-law he gives a description of his court costume on the occasion of his first presentation, when he was accompanied only by his brother-in-law, Mr. Goodrich:-- "We received our cards inviting us to the soirée and to pass the evening with their majesties on the 16th of January (Wednesday evening). '_En uniforme_' was stamped upon the card, so we had to procure court dresses. Mr. Goodrich, as is the custom in most cases, hired his; I had a full suit made for me. A _chapeau bras_, with gold lace loop, a blue coat, with standing collar, single breasted, richly embroidered with gold lace, the American eagle button, white silk lining, vest light cashmere with gilt buttons, pantaloons with a broad stripe of gold lace on the outside seams, a small sword, and patent-leather shoes or boots completed the dress of ordinary mortals like Brother Goodrich, but for _extra_ordinary mortals, like my humble republican self, I was bedizened with all my orders, seven decorations, covering my left breast. If thus accoutred I should be seen on Broadway, I should undoubtedly have a numerous escort of a character not the most agreeable, but, as it was, I found myself in very good and numerous company, none of whom could consistently laugh at his neighbors." After describing the ceremony of presentation he continues:--