les in which they move, and look with jealousy on any
infringement of the respectful attention they consider to be their due.

A few nights ago I saw the Duchesse de Guiche, on her return from a
reception at court, sparkling in diamonds, and looking so beautiful
that she reminded me of Burke's description of the lovely and
unfortunate Marie-Antoinette. To-day I thought her still more
attractive, when, wearing only a simple white _peignoir_, and her
matchless hair bound tightly round her classically shaped head, I saw
her enacting the part of _garde-malade_ to her children, who have
caught the measles.

With a large, and well-chosen nursery-establishment, she would confide
her precious charge to no care but her own, and moved from each little
white bed to the other with noiseless step and anxious glance, bringing
comfort to the dear little invalid in each. No wonder that her children
adore her, for never was there so devoted a mother.

In the meridian of youth and beauty, and filling so brilliant a
position in France, it is touching to witness how wholly engrossed this
amiable young woman's thoughts are by her domestic duties. She incites,
by sharing, the studies of her boys; and already is her little girl,
owing to her mother's judicious system, cited as a model.

It was pleasant to see the Duc, when released from his attendance at
court, hurrying into the sick chamber of his children, and their
languid eyes, lighting up with a momentary animation, and their
feverish lips relaxing into a smile, at the sound of his well-known
voice. And this is the couple considered to be "the glass of fashion
and the mould of form," the observed of all observers, of the courtly
circle at Paris!

Who could behold them as I have done, in that sick room, without
acknowledging that, despite of all that has been said of the
deleterious influence of courts on the feelings of those who live much
in them, the truly good pass unharmed through the dangerous ordeal?

Went to the Theatre des Nouveautes last night, where I saw _La Maison
du Rempart_. The Parisians seem to have decided taste for bringing
scenes of riot and disorder on the stage; and the tendency of such
exhibitions is any thing but salutary with so inflammable a people, and
in times like the present.

One of the scenes of _La Maison du Rempart_ represents an armed mob
demolishing the house of a citizen--an act of violence that seemed to
afford great satisfaction to the majori