midday
The life and gaiety of the brilliant capital , the streets lined with handsome houses and thronged with gay equipages , richly dressed people , soldiers wearing the tricolored cockade , students , artists , workmen , blanchisseuses , and nursery-maids in picturesque costumes tending prettily dressed children , made a moving panorama I never tired of . Even the great palaces and the wonderful works of art scarcely interested me as did this shifting kaleidoscopic picture , and I looked back at life in my native town on the banks of the Delaware as belonging to another world , incomparably tame and dull by comparison . Every morning I accompanied my uncle , Monsieur Barbé Marbois , to the Treasury office , and left him at the door , to roam around the streets and watch the life of the town . I was at home again in time for midday déjeuner , and then on Fatima 's back -LRB- for I had brought Fatima with me ; no persuasion of friends could induce me to leave her behind , since she had twice rescued mademoiselle and so become my most trusted friend -RRB- -- on Fatima 's back I dashed out the Avenue to the beautiful Wood of Boulogne , sometimes racing with the young bloods to whom my uncle had introduced me , sometimes checking my horse to a gentle canter beside a coachful of Faubourg St. Germain beauties , exchanging merry compliments with the brilliant and witty mothers while I looked at the pretty daughters , who , for aught I knew , were as stupid as their mothers were brilliant , since they never opened their mouths . And so back to my aunt 's in time to make a careful toilet for the four-o'clock dinner , when there were sure to be guests , more or less distinguished , but always interesting . I had delivered my message and my note from the President to Mr. Livingston on the day of my arrival , and it seemed to me that it did not please him overmuch that an envoy extraordinaire should be sent to attend to his affairs ; but he said nothing , and received me most graciously , both as a messenger from the President and because I was the son of his old friend . Several times since my arrival at my uncle 's house , both Mr. Livingston and his son the colonel had been guests there , and always the talk had turned on what most interested me , the purchase of New Orleans and the Floridas .