{ma chere = my dear}

But, as I shall have occasion, soon, to go into the whole philosophy of
this matter, when I come to relate the manner of my next purchase, I
will not stop here to relate all that Madame de la Rocheaimard said. It is
sufficient that she, a woman of tact in such matters at least, had strong
doubts concerning the TASTE and propriety of using worked pocket-
handkerchiefs, at all.

My principal objection to my companions in the drawer was their
incessant senseless repinings about France, and their abuse of the
country in which they were to pass their lives. I could see enough in
America to find fault with, through the creaks of the drawer, and if an
American, I might have indulged a little in the same way myself, for I am
not one of those who think fault-finding belongs properly to the
stranger, and not to the native. It is the proper office of the latter, as it is
his duty to amend these faults; the traveler being bound in justice to look
at the good as well as the evil. But, according to my companions, there
was NOTHING good in America--the climate, the people, the food,
the morals, the laws, the dress, the manners, and the tastes, were all
infinitely worse than those they had been accustomed to. Even the
physical proportions of the population were condemned, without mercy.
I confess I was surprised at hearing the SIZE of the Americans sneered
at by POCKET-HANDKERCHIEFS, as I remember to have read that
the NOSES of the New Yorkers, in particular, were materially larger
than common. When the supercilious and vapid point out faults, they
ever run into contradictions and folly; it is only under the lash of the
discerning and the experienced, that we betray by our writhings the
power of the blow we receive.