Elizabeth was beginning to tire of the brilliance of Paris, but kept her feelings to herself out of deference to the pleasures of her husband and sister. Instead, she supported her spirits and passed her time with studying the variety of people to be met with in Paris. Elizabeth had long been an observer of the foolish and the whimsical, but Paris was a veritable microcosm of every example of fop, dandy, gallant, aesthete, scholar, roué, and gentleman—and that was only in the male line. There were despondent lovers, hoping to acquire the polish and charms of a foreign education so as to press a favourable end to their suits, or at least their pursuits; dowagers, escaping the tyranny of vengeful daughters-in-law, had decamped thither to make themselves happy and their tormenters miserable by their residence in the Fair City, with all of its imagined diversions; artists flocked to Paris in pursuit of their muse, who was, for some unimaginable reason, presumed to be of the French nationality; and learned ladies and gentlemen pursued each other, hoping to illuminate their genius on these far shores. After what seemed an impossible effort, Elizabeth had at long last made Georgiana laugh when she proposed they amuse themselves classifying the Paris fair and the gallant in satirical solemnity, by dictating a letter to Mrs. Gardiner, describing their employments:

14th April
Paris

DEAR AUNT AND UNCLE GARDINER,