After this, as we were passing by Windsor the coachman suddenly
stopped and said, 'The Queen is coming, my lady.' We stood still and
the royal cortege passed. I only saw the Queen, who bowed graciously.
"Lady Mary stayed at our car door till it left the station, and handed
in a beautiful bouquet as we parted. This is one of the loveliest
visits I have made."
After filling a number of other pleasant engagements in England, among
which was a visit in the family of Charles Kingsley, Mrs. Stowe and
her party crossed the Channel and settled down for some months in
Paris for the express purpose of studying French. From the French
capital she writes to her husband in Andover as follows:--
PARIS, _November_ 7, 1856.
MY DEAR HUSBAND,--On the 28th, when your last was written, I was at
Charles Kingsley's. It seemed odd enough to Mary and me to find
ourselves, long after dark, alone in a hack, driving towards the house
of a man whom we never had seen (nor his wife either).
My heart fluttered as, after rumbling a long way through the dark, we
turned into a yard. We knocked at a door and were met in the hall by a
man who stammers a little in his speech, and whose inquiry, "Is this
Mrs. Stowe?" was our first positive introduction. Ushered into a
large, pleasant parlor lighted by a coal fire, which flickered on
comfortable chairs, lounges, pictures, statuettes, and book-cases, we
took a good view of him.
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