Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 1.djvu/26

headquarters in Paris remained the same; and so did what may be called his other headquarters at Cannes, where, in ever increasing ill health, he more and more established himself every winter. He still made regular journeys to England, where he had many friends and hosts, the chief of them being earlier Mr. Ellice of Glenquoich, and latterly Mr. (afterward Sir Antonio) Panizzi of the British Museum. And he still occasionally went elsewhere, especially to Spain, where Madame de Montijo, the Empress's mother, was his hostess at these times, as she was always his correspondent. Even his regular tours of inspection were in a manner replaced by visits almost as regular at the Imperial country residences of Fontainebleau, Compiegne, and Biarritz. It is difficult to be very certain whether he enjoyed these visits or not. He grumbles at them; but that is a common if not almost a universal piece of human hypocrisy in such cases. It is evident that the restraints of court dress, court hours, and court routine generally, were really and, in his later and more infirm days, seriously annoying to him, especially as he had a most un-French love of "home" and would certainly never have been prevented from marrying by the famous consideration "that he should have nowhere to