CHAPTER VII.

Took possession of our new house to-day, and are delighted with it.  Its repose and quiet are very agreeable, after the noise and bustle of the Rue de Rivoli.  Spent several hours in superintending the arrangement of my books, china, bijouterie, and flowers, and the rooms look as habitable as if we had lived in them for weeks.  How fortunate we are to have found so charming an abode!

A chasm here occurs in my journal, occasioned by the arrival of some dear relatives from England, with whom I was too much occupied to have time to journalise.  What changes five years effect in young people!  The dear girls I left children are now grown into women, but are as artless and affectionate as in childhood.  I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw them, yet I soon traced the same dear countenances, and marvelled that though changed from the round, dimpled ones of infancy, to the more delicate oval of maidenly beauty, the expression of gaiety and innocence of their faces is still the same.

A week has passed rapidly by, and now that they have returned to England, their visit appears like a dream.  I wish it had been longer, for I have seen only enough of them to wish to see a great deal more.

The good Mrs. W. and her lively, clever, and her pretty daughter, Mrs. R., dined with us yesterday.  They are en route for England, but give many a sigh to dear Italy.  It was pleasant to talk over the happy days passed there, which we did with that tender regret with which the past is always referred to by those who have sensibility, and they possess no ordinary portion of this lovable quality.  Les Dames Bellegarde also dined with us, and they English friends took a mutual fancy to each other.  I like the Bellegardes exceedingly.

Our old friend, Lord Lilford, is at Paris, and is as amiable and kind-hearted as ever.  He dined with us yesterday, and we talked over the pleasant days we spent at Florence.  Well-educated, and addicted to neither of the prevalent follies of the day, racing nor gaming, he only requires a little ambition to prompt him to exertion, in order to become a useful, as well as an agreeable member of the community, but with a good fortune and rank, he requires an incentive to action.

Met last evening at Madame Craufurd’s the Marquis and Marquise Zamperi of Bologna.  She is pretty and agreeable, and he is original and amusing.  They were very civil, and expressed regret at not having been at Bologna when we were there.

Had a visit from Count Alexandre de Laborde to-day.  His conversation is lively and entertaining.  Full of general information and good sense, he is no niggard in imparting the results of both to those with whom he comes in contact, and talks fluently, if not always faultlessly, in Italian and English.

The Marquis de Mornay and his brother Count Charles de Mornay dined here yesterday.  How many associations of the olden time are recalled by this ancient and noble name, Mornay du Plessis!