Autograph letter signed : Paris, to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett, [1852] May 14-15.

Telling George that they have all had "la grippe", but they are recovering; writing of Pen's trilingualism: "It's the most Babylonish of Baby-tongues"; giving an account of a military fête at the Champ de Mars that she and Anna Jameson attended, particuarly the difficulties in getting tickets (Elizabeth Easthope eventually gave them two tickets for a central section), the ceremony, their struggles in finding a carriage afterwards, and her thoughts about the day: "[I]t was'nt the review itself--it was the significance of the whole event that I cared to study & try to understand. And, after all, I saw nothing but the mere military pomp--which is nothing to me. I liked the crowded streets better"; giving a sense of the mood in Paris; telling him that "Admiral Askew" (John Ayscough), a personal friend of Louis Napoleon's, is staying with them and that he and Pen get along very well: "Wilson says that he sits in an armchair opposite the admiral, & talks Italian to him in his way, most imperturably--"; writing that they went to a soirée where they heard Thomas Tellefsen play Chopin and she met Mélanie Hahnemann ("the wife of the original homeopathist"), who prescribed homeopathic remedies for Browning's influenza; mentioning that she also met there a Polish princess who had learned of her work through the lectures of Philarète Chasles; telling George that they went to see Dumas's play "La Dame aux Camélias" and they were all very affected by it: "The acting was most exquisite--too exquisite--it really almost killed me out of my propriety--I sobbed so, I could barely keep my place--& had a splitting headache for four & twenty hours afterwards... the tears ran down Robert's cheeks--he could not resist it himself--"; writing that they had Lady Elgin (Mary Nisbet Ferguson) over last Saturday evening but it did not go well, because of the antipathy between her and Anna Jameson, especially regarding spiritualism: "While she talked of a communion of souls, Mrs. Jameson began to talk of private madhouses--in a way which made my blood run cold"; asking if Arabella has received her "sesquipedalia sort of letter."