Paris, Sept. 7, 1865.
MY DEAR RHODES:
I have just received your lively letter of the last of
August from which I infer that the agony of tearing yourself loose from your
adored Paris has been met in a heroic spirit and survived. “Parigi O cara” is
very hot and nasty now. “All in a hot and copper sky. The bloody sun at noon
blisters and broils the asphalt pave as hot as Hell in June,” as our mutual
friend the Ancient Mariner says. I feel deep sympathy for fat women at this
season. They pay a heavy tax for your admiration.
Your anxiety in regard to Mr. P—— I am happy to relieve by
stating, that he has returned in an astounding state of Teutonic health. He was
detained by sickness in Bonn but is now quite well.
I congratulate you on making the acquaintance of Mrs. L——.
One of the cleverest women I know. And thoroughly feminine and amiable.
I saw in the street the other day a handsome Spaniard named
B——, Secretary of Legation at Stockholm, who asked tidings of you. I said you
were in England. He looked polite commiseration and we drifted apart.
SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and
Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 255-6
