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do for them," he would frequently say of the French people; and his ideal of a fine showy clever rule was that of the superseded Empire.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.
"Why, madam, sitting in the Champs Elysees, opposite to the Palace of Industry, I've seen the court-carriages from the Tuileries pass up and down as many as seven times a day.

I remember one occasion when they went as high as nine.