He was, as Richard Baxter said of a better man, "always in that state of hilarity that another would be in when he hath taken a cup too much." Dick Follingsbee began life as a peddler.

He was now reputed to be master of untold wealth, kept a yacht and race-horses, ran his own theatre, and patronized the whole world and creation in general with a jocular freedom.

Mrs.Follingsbee had been a country girl, with small early advantages, but considerable ambition.

She had married Dick Follingsbee, and helped him up in the world, as a clever, ambitious woman may.

The last few years she had been spending in Paris, improving her mind and manners in reading Dumas' and Madame George Sand's novels, and availing herself of such outskirt advantages of the court of the Tuileries as industrious, pains-taking Americans, not embarrassed by self-respect, may command.
Mrs.Follingsbee, like many another of our republicans who besieged the purlieus of the late empire, felt that a residence near the court, at a time when every thing good and decent in France was hiding in obscure corners, and every thing _parvenu_ was wide awake and active, entitled her to speak as one having authority concerning French character, French manners and customs.