wife of thy bosom has remained faithful to thy memory; and that thy
sons, worthy of their sire--brave, noble, and generous-hearted--are
devoted to their country, for which thou hadst so often fought and
bled!

CHAPTER VI.

To my surprise and pleasure, I find that a usage exists at Paris which
I have nowhere else met with, namely, that of letting out rich and fine
furniture by the quarter, half, or whole year, in any quantity required
for even the largest establishment, and on the shortest notice.

I feared that we should be compelled to buy furniture, or else to put
up with an inferior sort, little imagining that the most costly can be
procured on hire, and even a large mansion made ready for the reception
of a family in forty-eight hours. This is really like Aladdin's lamp,
and is a usage that merits being adopted in all capitals.

We have made an arrangement, that if we decide on remaining in Paris
more than a year, and wish to purchase the furniture, the sum agreed to
be paid for the year's hire is to be allowed in the purchase-money,
which is to be named when the inventory is made out.

We saw the house for the first time yesterday; engaged it to-day for a
year; to-morrow, the upholsterer will commence placing the furniture in
it; and to-morrow night we are to sleep in it. This is surely being
very expeditious, and saves a world of trouble as well as of wailing.

Spent last evening at Madame Craufurd's. Met there the Prince and
Princesse Castelcicala, with their daughter, who is a very handsome
woman. The Prince was a long time Ambassador from Naples at the Court
of St. James, and he now fills the same station at that of France.

The Princesse is sister to our friend Prince Ischetella at Naples, and,
like all her country-women, appears sensible and unaffected. She and
Mademoiselle Dorotea speak English perfectly well, and profess a great
liking to England and its inhabitants. The Dowager Lady Hawarden, the
Marquise de Brehan, the Baroness d'Etlingen, Madame d'Ocaris, Lady
Barbara Craufurd, and Lady Combermere, composed the rest of the female
portion of the party.

Lady Hawarden has been very pretty: what a melancholy phrase is this
same _has been_! The Marquise de Brehan is still a very fine woman;
Lady Combermere is very agreeable, and sings with great expression; and
the rest of the ladies, always excepting Lady Barbara Craufurd, who is
very pretty, were very much like most other ladies of a certa