suppose she has taken care to communicate these notions to her friend, Lord Hartston.

In the midst of all these family disputes, poor Cecilia has got a learned Pundit from the Continent upon her hands, who is, just now, terribly à charge. I found him sitting with her yesterday, she looking like a tortoise in a menagerie, upon which some monster of a keeper has planted himself for the admiration of visiters-all shell, and not a glimpse of head discernible! Her faculties seemed actually ecrasé, benumbed, overpowered, by the weight of so prodigious a biped.

"People send one over this kind of creatures without the least consideration," said she, after his departure, "and what on earth is one to do with them? Their letter of introduction contains an allusion to their celebrated works, (of which one has probably never heard a word before,) enabling one to get tolerably through a first visit; but after having expressed our delight and gratitude at the honour of making the acquaintance of an individual so eminent, and invited him to a dinner, where, in all probability, he bites his bread and spits under the tablecloth, one really cannot be expected to weary ones self with the rationalities indispensable to avoid making a figure in the notebook which the eminent individual is cramming with items, to be expanded into two quarto volumes of prose when he shall return to Greenland, or Tobolsk, or Timbuctoo, or New-York, or the Ultima Thule, wherever it may be, to which the travels of the learned Pundit are to yield enlightenment. Besides, whom is one to invite to one's house to meet such a prodigy? The conversation-men like well enough to meet him once, in order to be wise or witty at his expense at the next half-dozen places they dine at; but when his face comes to be known at ministerial parties, Kensington Palace, and Lansdowne House, as 'the great Professor So-and-so, come to England to write a book,' one might as well ask people to come and meet a nouveau debarqué from Grand Cairo, when the plague (the eighth plague) is raging in Egypt."

"Poor dear Cis!" cried I; "and so you are really under sentence to let this Solon of the snows come and prose to you about prison discipline and national debt !"

"Exactly. At first the man talked to me rationally enough of society, literature, and the arts; but I saw he was pumping for his book, and so diverted the conversa

tion to subjects on which I must infallibly talk nonsense, utterly useless to him."

I recommended her to make the monster over at once to old Lady Burlington, by persuading her that his skin is tattooed, or that he breakfasts upon snail broth; after which he will obtain free quarters in the duchess's collection of monstrosities.

What an affectation of listlessness prevails among our London fine ladies; or is it, after all, reality-the result of enervating habits? In Paris, people talk with eagerness of an approaching ball-go at the exact hour they are invited, intending to dance, and dance with satisfaction. They even say with frankness—“ Quel désespoir si Monsieur Hope ne m'invite pas à son premier bal!" or, "Mon Dieu, je descendrais même à des bassesses pour avoir une invitation de Monsieur Del. mar!" Here, on the contrary, they descant upon "the bore" of going to Almack's or to Lady Londonderry's, as if it were an act of penance, and make their appearance at twelve or one o'clock, saying, "For Heaven's sake don't let us go too early; we shall have quite enough of it." This, mark you, "is affectation," and altogether dishonest. After all the toil and expense bestowed on a London season-the twenty balls a nightthe ten thousand people moving heaven and earth for invitations-are we to believe that the only individuals deriving entertainment from such vast efforts are only one or two hundred awkward blushing girls, the débu tantes of the year?

To the débutantes of last year, alas! the epithet of "blushing" is rarely applicable !-Shocked as I was by the prosy courtship and marriage of Matilde de Rochemore, I am far more so by the bold independence assumed by London young ladies-by the positiveness of their opinions, the knowingness of their jargon, and the self-seeking impertinence of their demeanour in society. Before my little nieces are old enough to be presented, I trust some happy medium will have been established, to suspend the necessity for match-hunting on the part of the naturally modest, timid girls of England.

The first tinge of ill-humour I have seen on Herbert's countenance since my arrival, was on returning from his club yesterday, the day of the dinner at Me

rioneth House. He was vexed with the duke for having invited Lord Hartston to meet us. Yet, surely nothing could be more natural than that he should collect at his table guests previously acquainted. On entering the drawing-room, Lord H. was the first person I discerned, standing beside the duchess dowager, to whom I was hastening to pay my compliments; and the flushed cheeks of which I was already conscious, arising from the embarrassment of finding myself the guest of the 'duke after what had passed between us, were doubly died by the surprise of so unexpected a meeting. Du reste, the party was evidently made for me. The Delavals, the Southams, the Clackmannans, the Herberts-all my friends were there. Just before dinner was announced, Lady Cecilia, who saw me in full dress for the first time since my return, observed in an audible voice, "Harriet, my dear, do you know that you are grown very thin? Lord Hartston, do you not find Mrs. Delaval looking very thin?" And his half-whispered reply was far too complimentary for me to repeat, even in my journal!

"Bravo!" cried Lady Cecilia, with her usual heedlessness. 66 My dear Harriet, this is evidently your house of triumph. I have seen you receive here, at different periods, the homage of two things unique after their kind-a yellow union-rose, and a compliment from Lord Hartston."

While she was talking in this rattling strain, I saw Herbert biting his lips, and looking very cross; but it was too late his friend's compliment had been both paid and overheard.

In the course of dinner, the duke having inquired whether he should meet me at the ball at Devonshire House on Friday, I replied in the negative.

"At Lady Ailesbury's, then, or Lady Cadogan's, or—” "You will meet me nowhere this season," said I, in terrupting his interrogatories; "I am in London for so short a time, and tired myself so completely last year with a double season, that I shall pass my few weeks in town exclusively among my friends.'

"I accept your presence here, then, as a double compliment," replied he; "and if you will repeat the favour of your visit at Hazelbank, (which you were so kind as to admire last season,) I will take care that you still find yourself' exclusively among your friends.' "Yes, my dear Mrs. Delaval, you must really come to

U

Hazelbank," added the duchess. "I have not been there yet this spring; and it will ensure me a pleasant day, if we can arrange a little party there under your auspices. In fact, I shall not visit Hazelbank, unless you promise to meet me:"

In the evening we had a little music. Lady Alicia Spottiswoode sings Scottish ballads enchantingly; and I fulfilled my part in the concert by an air composed for Rubini in Bellini's unpublished opera, which I learned at Paris from himself.

It seems, however, that in defiance of the determination I expressed to the duke, I am not to remain altogether in the shade. At Sir Henry Herbert's earnest request, I accompanied Armine the other day to the drawing-room; and, in consequence of Lady Southam's presentation, we have both received invitations for the ball at St. James's on Monday next. I will not, à la mode des fashionables, affect to regret this; and such a ball is of course an exception that need not be cited against me. My preparations carried me this morning to my old friend Mrs. Hemstitch, from whom I learned that my protégé, young Forster, has obtained a step in his office, and is doing honour to me and himself; for which satisfaction, I am indebted to Lord Hartston.

Our déjeuner at Hazelbank was, if possible, more charming than that of last year-more charming to me, because the Herberts were there for the first time, and enchanted with the place. There were not above forty people present, including Prince and Princess Zabuschka, whom I requested the duke to invite, with Alfred de la Vanguyon as their cicerone. Lady Alicia was looking beautiful. She is greatly improved this season; and, now that her anxiety respecting her engagements to Clarence is removed, is grown lively and conversible. As I was walking through the conservatories with the Herberts, admiring some exquisite botanical novelties introduced since last summer, Lord Hartston, who accom panied us, picked a leaf or two from a geranium, and placed them in his button-hole.

"Is that geranium one of the scented kinds ?" said I, carelessly. "I was not aware of it."

"Nor I," was his quiet answer. "To me it serves to commemorate a souvenir. I was standing by that very plant, and leaning against that very pillar, last year,

when for the first time you condescended to address me."

Fortunately, neither Cecilia nor Sir Henry overheard the compliment; the former would have been too much amused, the latter too angry. Before the close of the day, I received a still greater compliment from a different person. The Duke of M. having contrived to lead me by degrees apart from the rest of the party, down a beautiful allée verte, beside an old wall, overgrown with honeysuckles, inquired, in a very faltering voice, whether time and reflection might not have wrought some fa* vourable change in my feelings towards him.

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I importune you on this subject," said he, " for the last time; but I would not willingly relinquish a pursuit so dear, and so warmly approved by all to whom my happiness is a matter of interest, without one further effort in my own behalf. Be kind, dearest Mrs. Delaval; be generous. I cannot promise you happiness; I can only promise every care to make you happy, which the fondest affection and devotion can suggest. Tell me, then, am I absolutely hopeless of softening your resolutions against me?"

It was painful, if not difficult, to repeat my former answer; and my noble-spirited admirer was really so diffuse and so unguarded in the expression of his grief and disappointment, that I fear he was overheard by Herbert, who met us, with Lady Southam on his arm, at a turn of the shrubbery. The business, however, is now completely set at rest; I have succeeded in satisfying the duke that I know my own mind.

This morning, according to an appointment made yesterday at Hazelbank, I accompanied the Duchess of Merioneth to the exhibitions at Somerset House, and the Water Colours; and having recently visited the exposition by modern artists at the Louvre, was not a little gratified to observe the eminent superiority of my own countrymen. On entering every modern public gallery, whether in France or England, the eye is disagreeably struck by a number of glaring daubs, the production of young or talentless artists; but a second glance brings to view in Paris the graceful elegant portraits of Dubufe, a variety of infinitely clever tableaux de genre, and many meritorious specimens of sculpture-upon which art the French government bestows liberal patronage; while in