conversation with Mademoiselle d'Este upon
the matter, objecting to the extreme immorality of the pieces, and
expressing my astonishment at seeing decent Englishwomen crowd to
them night after night, since they certainly would not tolerate such
representations on the English stage.

Mademoiselle d'Este replied that that was because, on the English
stage, they would be coarse and vulgar. I denied that the difference
of language made any essential difference in the matter, though she
was certainly right in saying that the less refined style of English
acting might make the offensiveness of such pieces more unpleasantly
obtrusive; but that in looking round the assembly of fine ladies at
Dejazet's performances, I comforted myself by feeling very sure that
half of them did not understand what they were listening to; but I
think it must have been "nuts" to the clever, cynical, witty,
impudent Frenchwoman to see these _dames trois fois respectables_
swallow her performances _sans sourcilliez_.

After some more conversation on general subjects, the Queen Dowager
rose, saying she hoped Mademoiselle d'Este would bring me to visit
her again; and so we received our _conge_.

Mentioning the appearance of some eruption on the good Queen's face
reminds me of a painful circumstance which took place one day when,
meeting a beautiful child of about four years old, the daughter of
one of the ladies of the Court, who was going into the Palace
gardens under the escort of her nurse, the Queen stopped the child,
and, attracted by her beauty, stooped to kiss her, when the little
thing drew back with evident disgust, exclaiming, "No, no; you have
a red face! Mamma says I must never kiss anybody with a red face."
The poor Queen probably seldom received such a plain statement of
facts in return for her condescension. Her unostentatious goodness
and amiable character have now become matter of history. One of the
most characteristic traits of her life was her ordering of her own
funeral with a privacy and simplicity more touching than any royal
pomp, specifying that her coffin should be carried to the grave by
four sailors--a last tribute of affection to her husband's memory.

Among the passages in Charles Greville's Memoirs that shocked me
most, and that I read with the most pain, were the coarse and cruel