In no other place, on these terms, could Mr. Luce
flatter himself that he was enjoying life. There was nothing like
Paris, but it must be confessed that Mr. Luce thought less highly of
this scene of his dissipations than in earlier days. In the list of
his resources his political reflections should not be omitted, for
they were doubtless the animating principle of many hours that
superficially seemed vacant. Like many of his fellow colonists Mr.
Luce was a high- or rather a deep- conservative, and gave no
countenance to the government lately established in France. He had
no faith in its duration and would assure you from year to year that
its end was close at hand. "They want to be kept down, sir, to be kept
down; nothing but the strong hand- the iron heel- will do for them,"
he would frequently say of the French people; and his ideal of a
fine showy clever rule was that of the superseded Empire. "Paris is
much less attractive than in the days of the Emperor; he knew how to
make a city pleasant," Mr. Luce had often remarked to Mrs. Touchett,
who was quite of his own way of thinking and wished to know what one
had crossed that odious Atlantic for but to get away from republics.
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