I remember, that when I came from Cambridge, I had acquired, among the pedants of that illiberal seminary, a sauciness of literature, a turn to satire and contempt, and a strong tendency to argumentation and contradiction.  But I had been but a very little while in the world, before I found that this would by no means do; and I immediately adopted the opposite character; I concealed what learning I had; I applauded often, without approving; and I yielded commonly without conviction.  ‘Suaviter in modo’ was my law and my prophets; and if I pleased (between you and me) it was much more owing to that, than to any superior knowledge or merit of my own.  Apropos, the word pleasing puts one always in mind of Lady Hervey; pray tell her, that I declare her responsible to me for your pleasing; that I consider her as a pleasing Falstaff, who not only pleases, herself, but is the cause of pleasing in others; that I know she can make anything of anybody; and that, as your governess, if she does not make you please, it must be only because she will not, and not because she cannot.  I hope you are ‘dubois don’t on en fait’; and if so, she is so good a sculptor, that I am sure she can give you whatever form she pleases.  A versatility of manners is as necessary in social, as a versatility of parts is in political life.  One must often yield, in order to prevail; one must humble one’s self, to be exalted; one must, like St. Paul, become all things to all men, to gain some; and, by the way, men are taken by the same means, ‘mutatis mutandis’, that women are gained—­by gentleness, insinuation, and submission:  and these lines of Mr. Dryden will hold to a minister as well as to a mistress: 

        “The prostrate lover, when he lowest lies,
        But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise.”

In the course of the world, the qualifications of the chameleon are often necessary; nay, they must be carried a little further, and exerted a little sooner; for you should, to a certain degree, take the hue of either the man or the woman that you want, and wish to be upon terms with.  ‘A propos’, have you yet found out at Paris, any friendly and hospitable Madame de Lursay, ’qui veut bien se charger du soin de vous eduquer’?  And have you had any occasion of representing to her, ’qu’elle faisoit donc des noeuds’?  But I ask your, pardon, Sir, for the abruptness of the question, and acknowledge that I am meddling with matters that are out of my department.  However, in matters of less importance, I desire to be ‘de vos secrets le fidele depositaire’.  Trust me with the general turn and color of your amusements at Paris.  Is it ’le fracas du grand monde, comedies, bals, operas, cour,’ etc.?  Or is it ’des petites societes, moins bruyantes, mais pas pour cela moins agreables’?  Where are you the most ‘etabli’?  Where are you ’le petit Stanhope?  Voyez vous encore jour, a quelque arrangement honnete?  Have you made many acquaintances