no propos risques. I don't know exactly what people talk about, for
the supply of scandal is small, and it's poor in quality. They
don't seem, however, to lack topics. The young girls are always
there; they keep the gates of conversation; very little passes that
is not innocent. I find we do very well without wickedness; and,
for myself, as I take my ease, I don't miss my liberties. You
remember what I thought of the tone of your table in Florence, and
how surprised you were when I asked you why you allowed such things.
You said they were like the courses of the seasons; one couldn't
prevent them; also that to change the tone of your table you would
have to change so many other things. Of course, in your house one
never saw a young girl; I was the only spinster, and no one was
afraid of me! Of course, too, if talk is more innocent in this
country, manners are so, to begin with. The liberty of the young
people is the strongest proof of it. The young girls are let loose
in the world, and the world gets more good of it than ces
demoiselles get harm. In your world--excuse me, but you know what I
mean--this wouldn't do at all. Your world is a sad affair, and the
young ladies would encounter all sorts of horrors. Over here,
considering the way they knock about, they remain wonderfully
simple, and the reason is that society protects them instead of
setting them traps. There is almost no gallantry, as you understand
it; the flirtations are child's play. People have no time for
making love; the men, in particular, are extremely busy. I am told
that sort of thing consumes hours; I have never had any time for it
myself. If the leisure class should increase here considerably,
there may possibly be a change; but I doubt it, for the women seem
to me in all essentials exceedingly reserved. Great superficial
frankness, but an extreme dread of complications. The men strike me
as very good fellows. I think that at bottom they are better than