My fair compatriots have consequently fewer topics, even if they had equal talent, to converse on; so that the _esprit_ styled, _par excellence, l'esprit eminemment francais_, is precisely that to which we can urge the fewest pretensions.
This does not, however, dispose me to depreciate a talent, or art, for art it may be called, that renders society in France not only so brilliant but so agreeable, and which is attended with the salutary effect of banishing the ill-natured observations and personal remarks which too often supply the place of more harmless topics with us..